Exploring Therapeutic Communication in Nursing Practice

This essay examines the critical role of therapeutic communication in nursing, focusing on its impact on delivering person-centered care and improving patient outcomes. It explores various communication strategies, including verbal and nonverbal techniques, and discusses the importance of building effective relationships with patients and their families. The essay highlights the challenges nurses face, such as language barriers and cultural differences, and suggests solutions like interpreter services and the SPIKES protocol for delivering difficult news. It emphasizes the need for effective leadership, collaboration with other healthcare professionals, and the use of tools like case conferences to facilitate shared decision-making. The essay concludes by reinforcing the significance of therapeutic communication in creating a safe environment, enhancing the quality of care, and ultimately improving the health outcomes of patients, particularly those facing emotional distress or end-of-life situations.

Running head: NURSING COMMUNICATION
IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION
Communication is an effective approach to delivering person-centred care to patients
and their families. According to Sherko, Soitri, and Lika (2013), therapeutic communication
is an effective approach that helps patients in better understanding of their health status. The
communication can be done with the help of verbal along with nonverbal communication.
Communication can be defined as an act of interchanging any information from a person to
another (Asani et al. 2017). Thus, communication involves the sender, receiver, along with
crucial information. Most of the patients are in pain and confused about their illness and lack
of information regarding their health status. Thus, communication is important and relevant
to reduce the confusion among the patients and helps in understanding their health by
providing relevant information (Last, R., 2015). Therapeutic communication is consistent in
building an effective relationship with patients and their families as the healthcare
organization is continuously evolving with new techniques and treatment procedures (Elmi et
al. 2018). This essay intends to examine the influence of therapeutic communication in
delivering effective person-centred care and safety in any healthcare setting.
I worked in a public hospital as a registered nurse. It was the responsibility of mine to
educate the patients and provide relevant information about their treatment. In addition to
this, I was also administrating their treatment. Patients undergo major trauma and pain, and
therefore, it is essential to connect or build a relationship in their entire journey of receiving
treatment. Therapeutic relations with the patients and their families are very much crucial,
and it can only be achieved by effective communication or adopting communication
strategies (Coyne 2015). As individuals or patients who visit hospitals are culturally diverse,
the healthcare settings often provide person-centred care to increase the efficacy of care. As
per the guidelines of Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au (2020), our healthcare settings have
benchmarked effective communication by respecting the dignity, rights, beliefs, and values of
every patient. With every possible outlines and protocol, I have encountered many barriers in

2IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION
building rapport with the patients' such as language barrier, cultural competence, and unable
to deliver any bad news effectively. Sometimes, due to time constraints, the nurses often do
not give open-handed questions for understanding their history or personal issues for the
effective delivery of person-centred care. The language is the major barrier as multiple
diverse people population is filled in Australia. According to Ministers.treasury.gov.au
(2020), England, New Zealand, China, and India were the major four countries that live in
Australia that increases the diversity and results in language barriers. Australia is filled with
multiple languages speaking people. Therefore, it is very much essential to overcome these
barriers with effective strategies and procedures for improving communication. Effective
communication would help in delivering person-centred care and increase safety, along with
health outcomes.
I have experienced that communicating and active listening helped in understanding
the patients and also improve in building relationships along with gaining trust. The
communication needs to be two-way; it would help the patients in making any decisions and
takes part in sharing their thoughts during the recovery or treatment procedures (Warnecke
2014). The person-centred care is care that allows the healthcare settings to create an
environment for sufficient quality by delivering care based on the patient's preferences or
reorienting the model of care. This model would allow the nurses to take the information of
patients such as their age, location, previous histories, and related issues that would help in
developing person-centred care among the patients. The complex communication such as
false communication or providing hope may lead to reducing therapeutic communication.
False communication is providing false hope, such as related to pain and promising the
patients that he or she would be fine without confirming their health status (Cheng 2017). All
these factors lead to poor communication, and it needs to be reduced for improving health
outcomes.

3IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION
Implementing communication strategies and communication theories are essential for
improving therapeutic communication. The children or adults with hearing issues, vision
issues, speech, language, and cognitive impairment are the most vulnerable groups, and
therefore, they need unique or complex communication. Communication tools such as visual
displays and speech generating devices are the most effective approach for patients who have
hearing or vision-related health issues. According to Blackstone and Pressman (2016), in
France, the hospital has developed a Tri-fold kit for emergency rooms. This tool has been
implemented in every emergency room for delivering effective communication. Another
approach can be providing the writing materials to the patients. Either patients or nurses can
write the necessary information and helps in effective communication. Moreover, with the
help of any communication device, the nurses can ask a close handed question to understand
the health of their patients. The language has also become a barrier as Australian is filled
with multiple languages speaking people, and to overcome this, keeping an interpreter is
important. The patients who could not communicate due to the language are at higher risks
for receiving any clinical interactions and information. Therefore, the interpreter plays a vital
role in delivering relevant information to the patients about their clinical procedures or
treatment or their health issues. Sometimes, interpreter tends to provide vast information at
one instance which makes the patients more confuse and increase their anxiety levels (van
Rosse et al. 2016). Thus, it is advisable to hire a professional interpreter for effective
communication
The cancer patients need emotional support as their emotions while receiving the
treatments can be either sad, anxious, or filled with anger. For delivering patient-centred care
during such circumstances, nursing professionals need to adopt any effective communication
theory or model. According to Granek et al. (2013), many oncologists have felt difficulties in
communicating with the patients regarding their end of life. However, they need to

4IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION
communicate for the welfare of the patients, along with it is their duties and responsibilities.
Therefore, it is important for open and honest communication about the end of life of the
patients. Oncologists need to provide relevant information to their patients and families.
Moreover, oncologists should provide information and make conversation at the early stage
that would help patients and families to fight the disease. The nursing professionals or any
other care providers must involve talking about the procedures of treatment. It would help
patients to understand the goal of treatment, and that would help patients in improving the
quality of life. In addition to this, it is important to provide effective training for nursing
professionals or oncologists. For enhancing communication skills, the training must include
three elements: training healthcare professionals to manage their emotional distress while
communicating with patients, helping healthcare professionals to test their counterproductive
opinions, and training healthcare professionals in specialised skills such as shared decision-
making skills along with patient-centred communication.
Another approach for improving the therapeutic communication is the SPIKES
protocol. According to Hawthorn (2015), it is difficult for healthcare professionals to
maintain hopes or to avail of information from ill patients. Therefore, SPIKES is a six-step
protocol that helps in dynamic along with flexible interaction among the care seekers and
care providers. SPIKES stands for setting, perception, invitation, knowledge, emotions, and
strategy. The protocol set up the interview that includes planning along with preparation. In
the next step of perception, the care provider would assess the understanding of patients, and
the third step would offer to find an invitation from patients to offer information. They were
followed by delivering relevant knowledge and information to the patients. With the help of
the person-centred approach, the care provider would address the emotions of patients. In the
last step, the care provider would summarise all the key elements and plan a necessary future
strategy. Therefore, this protocol would involve patients in developing a next strategic plan.

5IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION
Thus, SPIKES protocol is effective communication that involves patients and builds an
effective relationship in delivering the treatment.
Patients may often need to make a critical decision regarding their treatments and end
up unable to take the right actions (Berg et al. 2017). For making a practical clinical decision,
the patients and their families need to know or understand their health status. Case
conferences are another approach that would help patients and families understand their
current health status. Case conferences would effectively help in formulating shared
decisions. Shared decision- making would benefit the patient in making the right choice
towards their health (Tamirisa et al. 2017). A case conference is an approach that requires
effective communication for developing efficient decision-making. This conference would
include patients, their family members, and other key healthcare professionals or nursing
professionals (Spencer and Wheeler 2016).
Every strategy or theory of effective communication for enhancing therapeutic
communication with patients needs to be evaluated and analyse. The analysis of the strategy
or implementation of such practice can be done under the supervision of clinical leaders or
nursing leaders. For implementing new protocols or modifying the existing approach, the
senior leaders have to manage the change effectively. Therefore, effective leadership is
necessary for overcoming any issues that may arise due to the change. Clinical leadership
holds characteristics such as effective communicators, supportive, motivator, mentor,
approachable, and knowledgeable for guiding the nursing professionals and other caregivers
to deliver person-centred care to the patients (Stanley and Stanley 2018). Clinical leadership
also helps in making any critical decision for providing quality care, and they motivate the
nursing professionals to build an effective professional relationship with their patients.

6IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION
Collaboration with other healthcare professionals would amplify the safety and
quality of care to the patients. Nurses tend to work in a team, and developing a team
comprises of multiple professions would strengthen the care process. For planning the team,
there is a need for an effective leader who would listen actively, treat team members with
respect, positive language, and would provide feedback with the help of all the inputs. This
collaboration would include other professions with generating new knowledge that can be
implemented in the practices. The primary characteristic of this model is to understand the
role and responsibilities of other team members, which would help in developing the outcome
of inter-professional teamwork.
Nursing professionals also act as an advocate for the welfare of the patients
(Ahluwalia et al. 2016). Nurses often administered the entire treatment procedures with
effective communication to understand the pain areas of the patients to enhance the treatment
and delivery of care. It would develop such practice in delivering person-centred care to the
patients. The advocate for communication would help in encouraging or enhancing the
interactive dialogues, promote respect, and increase the growth of effective communication
that would help in benefiting the patients.
I have described the multiple communication strategies that would help in improving
the therapeutic communication among cancer patients. Cancer patients are very much
distressed with their emotions and often turned out facing depression. Cancer patients
suffering from adverse feelings may often struggle to think logically (Finset, Heyn, and
Ruland 2013). Therefore, nursing professionals must build effective therapeutic
communication. In addition to this, ensuring safety to the patients is also necessary. Thus,
therapeutic communication is an essential approach for sustaining hope at the end of life
(Hawthorn 2015). Person-centred care is a holistic approach in delivering the care that
involves the social, psychological, and spiritual needs of patients. Therefore, I have

7IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION
understood that they can influence the health outcomes of patients with the help of effective
therapeutic communication.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, this essay can be concluded with the practical impact of
therapeutic communication in providing care to the patients and their family members.
Therapeutic communication is an essential tool in delivering person-centred care to cancer
patients. With the help of multiple strategies of therapeutic communication, there can be a
generation of a safe environment for the patients to avail of the services from the clinical
settings. The quality care of patients would also enhance effective communication and
engaging relationship with healthcare professionals. The health outcomes of the patients
would have a greater impact due to the effective communication between patients and
healthcare professionals. Building a relationship with family members would also help in
planning a shared decision. Clinical settings must start in focusing more on communication
among the key stakeholders. Individual across their lifespan needs effective communication
for expressing their pain as well as receiving the appropriate treatment. Therefore, clinical
settings should include effective training programs for developing communication skills
among healthcare professionals. The skills can vary from interpersonal skills to clinical skills,
and we must implement each ability in therapeutic communications.
As a registered nurse, I deal with patients daily and assist them in their journey of
care. The action plan that I would implement in delivering effective care is understanding and
emphasizing the patients. There are many communication strategies and theories that are the
pieces of evidence in providing adequate care and improving the health outcome of the
patients. Implementing or adopting the practice of such approaches would help in delivering
person-centred care to the patients.

8IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION

9IMPACT OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION
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