Enhancing Interpersonal Communication Skills in Healthcare Settings

This report examines the significance of interpersonal communication skills in nursing, specifically highlighting the use of summarizing techniques in patient care. The student nurse reflects on their experience with an elderly patient with dementia, focusing on the challenges of communication, particularly the interpretation of non-verbal cues and the application of the Gibbs reflective model. The report emphasizes the importance of patience, understanding, and sensitivity to the patients' needs, especially those with cognitive impairments. It also discusses the challenges faced by nurses in providing care and the need for continuous professional development through training and seminars to enhance communication skills. The student nurse was able to utilize summarization skills to connect behaviors from the patient and noted that he was not mentally stable and could not consume food properly. The report also underscores the importance of building trust and strengthening the patient-nurse relationship through effective communication. The student encountered challenges in identifying, evaluating and interpreting the non-verbal communication cues, and has learnt the need to enhance medical judgement skills and develop confidence when handling patients.

Running head: INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILL 1
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILL
Interpersonal Communication Skill
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course
Date

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILL 2
Interpersonal Communication Skill
Communication plays a significant role in addressing the desires of the patients. My major
focus will be a reflection on summarizing skills which will illustrate the relationship that I
had with the patient that was under my care. Summarizing counselling skill is utilized to
condense the key points of the patient, what he is feeling or saying and this can be expressed
verbally or non- verbally. As a nurse, I will demonstrate summarising as an effective
intrapersonal communication skill. Patients often feel relieved when nurses are able to show
empathy and understand their emotions. However, poor communication can lead to poor
quality care, patient anxiety and misunderstanding. Proper communication with my patients,
social and health care professionals would aid in enhancing the care that my patient would be
receiving (Bach and Grant, 2015, 24). I would use Gibbs reflective model to reflect my
nursing experience, which enabled me to develop competency in recognizing non - verbal
and verbal information that the patient may be relying.
Reflective practices facilitate health care professionals to enhance their current nursing
practice by learning from one’s own experience and incidents in the medical facilities
(Truglio-Londrigan and Slyer, 2018, 1). I was located in mental health care unit to aid an
aged patient with dementia though admitted for pneumonia. During my first day, I was told to
help the patient during his feeding time after the nutritional evaluation was conducted by a
senior nurse. As a student nurse, I had to ensure that his environment was uncluttered and
comfortable by assisting him to self- feed. During feeding time, I informed the patient that I
would offer aid to him in consuming his food. However, the patient stared to the wall and
ignored me. The senior nurse, when passing buy reminded me to put a little pressure in order
for him to eat his food. It took me almost 2 hours to feed the patient since I had to constantly
remind him to chew his food.

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILL 3
On reflection, it is quite challenging to communicate with aged patients with dementia.
These are because the majority of them are unable to express their concerns and feelings due
to cognitive impairments. A significant proportion of the dementia patients who are admitted
at the ward are unable to understand feeding instructions due to lack of cognitive abilities.
Some of the patients have difficulty ingesting food due to swallowing problems. The
objective of nutrition is to maintain comfort feeding and hydration.
Since the hospital environment is unfamiliar, the dementia patient may express anxiety
and fear. This indicated that an aversive behaviour of dementia patients had a negative impact
on the nurses. On reflection, I was able to learn to be more patient and be able to understand
both the non -verbal and verbal information being relayed by the patient. Thus I was able to
know that the patient seemed confused, and it was my duty to feed him. In addition, I felt
unprepared while attempting to communicate with the patient. Lack of unpreparedness is a
common challenge that the nurses face when administering care and communicating with
dementia patients.
On reflection, I should progress my professional growth by joining a seminar and training
on effective ways to communicate with aged patients with dementia. I will not be in need of
supervision from the senior nurse when faced with the similar circumstance in the future
since I will be well prepared with proper interpersonal communication skills (Bullington et
al., 2019, 136-141). At the moment am aware that the dementia patients have difficulty in
expressing themselves; thus, I have to recognize, understand and be sensitive to their non-
verbal cues. Therefore, it will be core that I make a proper interpretation of the possible signs
of the patient such as fear, anxiety and distress.
In conclusion, I was able to utilize summarization skill to integrate two or more
behaviours, feelings and thoughts of the patient. I was able to connect behaviours from the
patient and noted that he was not mentally stable and could not consume food properly. He

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILL 4
easily forgot and stared at things. The summarizing skill enabled me to clarify the feelings of
the patient, building up the trust and strengthen the patient-nurse relationship (Geyer,
Coetzee, Ellis and Uys, 2018, 370-379). On the other hand, as a student nurse, I encountered
challenges in identifying, evaluating and interpreting the non- verbal communication cues.
On my reflection, I have learnt the need to enhance my medical judgement skills and develop
confidence when handling patients.

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILL 5
References
Bach, S. and Grant, A., 2015. Communication and interpersonal skills in nursing. Learning
Matters.
Bullington, J., Söderlund, M., Sparén, E.B., Kneck, Å., Omérov, P. and Cronqvist, A., 2019.
Communication skills in nursing: A phenomenologically-based communication training
approach. Nurse education in practice, 39, pp.136-141.
Geyer, N.M., Coetzee, S.K., Ellis, S.M. and Uys, L.R., 2018. Relationship of nurses’
intrapersonal characteristics with work performance and caring behaviours: A cross‐
sectional study. Nursing & health sciences, 20(3), pp.370-379.
Truglio-Londrigan, M. and Slyer, J.T., 2018. Shared decision-making for nursing practice: an
integrative review. The open nursing journal, 12, p.1.