COMMUNICATION 5: Critique of Healthcare Professional Communication

This report offers a critique of a nursing student's communication techniques with a patient, drawing on a YouTube video for observation. The analysis focuses on various aspects of communication, including listening skills, nonverbal cues, personal space, and the use of open-ended questions. The report highlights the student's strengths, such as attentiveness and the use of open-ended questions to foster patient control, while also identifying areas for improvement. These include the overuse of probing questions and interrupting the patient, which can lead to patient discomfort and hinder effective communication. The report references several scholarly articles to support its analysis, providing a comprehensive overview of effective communication strategies in healthcare settings and emphasizing the importance of adapting communication techniques to foster positive patient interactions.

Running Head: COMMUNICATION 1
Critique: The Health Care Professional as an effective communicator
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Date Submitted

COMMUNICATION 2
Critique: The Health Care Professional as an effective communicator
Question 1
Listening: The nursing student is quite attentive to the patient and listens to everything she says
and calms her as when measures her blood pressure. (YouTube, 2018). This is great as it creates
a good rapport with the patient. As per Stein-Parbury’s views on active listening, one should be
alert of their choice of communication techniques, the timing, manner and the personal
characteristics to be effective. (Estes et al., 2016)
Nonverbal cues: The nursing student was able to notice the patient’s body position and realized
she was uncomfortable. (YouTube, 2018). In this way, she was able to ask her how her night
was and whether she was in any pain hence a great assessment. Nonverbal cues such as failure to
maintain eye contact, fidgeting, rapid blinking, body position, yawning, repetitive throat
clearing, excessive frowning or smiling show the patient may be uncomfortable expressing her
self verbally. (Estes et al., 2016)
Personal space: In this case, it was a hospital room with three beds, the nursing student was able
to maintain the personal space and even opened the windows so that the room is more
comfortable for the patient. (YouTube, 2018). The patient even asked for a magazine that would
keep her busy. The patient might be extremely defensive of this space and think about
unapproved utilization of it as a privacy invasion. (Estes et al., 2016)
Distance: The nursing student maintained a personal distance with the patient as she measured
the blood pressure. The personal distance may likewise include some touching or physical
contact, and it might ease communication on a few occasions, for example, for patients with
hearing hindrance. (Estes et al., 2016).

COMMUNICATION 3
Question 2:
In this case, I believe that the nursing student used the open-ended questions as effective
communication techniques. This is because she started by asking the patient “Good morning,
how are you?” (YouTube, 2018). Effective communication strategies encourage or bolster
cooperations between the medical attendant and the patient and cultivate their continuation.
These systems incorporate both verbal and nonverbal methodologies. (Estes et al., 2016).
Starting the wellbeing appraisal meet with open-ended questions furnishes the patient with a
feeling of control, leaving the decision of what to state, the amount to state, and how to state it up
to the patient. These questions show regard for the patient's capacity to verbalize essential or to
squeeze wellbeing concerns and, subsequently, to help set needs.
Open-ended questions that start with the words how, what, where, when and who are more
effective in evoking the most extreme measure of data than those that start with the word why.
(Estes et al., 2016). 'Why' questions can make patients end up protective and want to some way
or another clarify or guard their thoughts and conduct, along these lines setting up an
antagonistic connection amongst medical attendant and patient. Albeit open-ended questions are
instrumental in the wellbeing appraisal talk with, they can be tedious and may not be proper in
the circumstances requiring quick access to data and fast reaction by medicinal services
suppliers. Abuse of this sort of question, particularly with the patient who is confounded,
ambiguous in his or her reactions, or to a great degree garrulous, can make the medical attendant
miss imperative data.
Question 3:
Probing: The nursing student kept asking the patient whether she felt any pain. She repeated that
many times which would have been disappointing to her. (YouTube, 2018). Rehashed or
industrious addressing of the patient about an announcement or conduct builds understanding
tension and can cause perplexity, threatening vibe and an inclination to pull back from the
connection. (Estes et al., 2016). This patient withdrawal and the expanding times of hush coming
about because of it can heighten the medical attendant's uneasiness. On edge, medical caretakers
tend to end up more dynamic and more mandate in the meeting. The patient's unwillingness or
wavering to examine a specific occasion or wellbeing concern may demonstrate persistent

COMMUNICATION 4
misconception, deception, or a noteworthy issue region that requirements advance illumination
or investigation.
Interrupting the patient: The nursing student interrupted the patient when she was asking her
whether she had ever taken the blood pressure measurement before. She said: “so you know what
to expect?” without even letting her finish answering the question. (YouTube,
2018). Interrupting the patient avoids consummation of an idea or thought and presented another
core interest. (Estes et al., 2016). Such conduct may facilitate the medical caretaker's
inconvenience, yet it demonstrates an absence of regard and frequently just confounds or disturbs
the patient. Questions should center around one specific subject until the point when every single
pertinent datum have been gathered, and the patient feels wrapped up. Interrupting the patient
with cuts off the stream of thoughts and imparts the message that whatever the patient was
tending to isn't as essential as what the attendant needs to examine straightaway.

COMMUNICATION 5
References
Estes, et al. Mary, Ellen Zator, (2016). Health Assessment & Physical Examination. Cengage
Learning Australia, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Granot, T., Gordon, N., Perry, S., Rizel, S., & Stemmer, S. M. (2016). Factors Affecting
Communication Patterns between Oncology Staff and Family Members of Deceased
Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study. PloS one, 11(9), e0162813.
Koo, L. W., Horowitz, A. M., Radice, S. D., Wang, M. Q., & Kleinman, D. V. (2016). Nurse
Practitioners' Use of Communication Techniques: Results of a Maryland Oral Health
Literacy Survey. PloS one, 11(1), e0146545.
Riley, J. B. (2015). Communication in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Silverman, J., Kurtz, S., & Draper, J. (2016). Skills for communicating with patients. CRC Press.
YouTube. (2018). Introduction to patient 1. [online] Available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoI_cJdtvoQ&feature=youtu.be [Accessed 18 Mar.
2018].