NUR111: Interpersonal Communication Skills in Nursing Practice

This essay delves into the critical role of interpersonal communication skills in nursing, particularly in establishing trust and fostering cooperative relationships with patients. It highlights key skills such as patience, active listening, and the importance of team spirit in healthcare settings. The essay also emphasizes self-reflection on the use of these skills to improve patient care and create a positive working environment. Good communication is essential for coordinating relationships between stakeholders and ensuring effective service delivery in the nursing field. Access more solved assignments and resources on Desklib.

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INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS
NAME
INSTITUTION
TUTOR
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Interpersonal Communication Skills
Communication plays a critical role in any organization set up. Good communication
between nurses and patients is important for a good relationship and enabling a favorable
environment that makes the health care center move forward in regards to their goals (Help
guide, 2016). Therefore, communication deals directly with the service to the human being.
Communication is a crucial element in the nursing field as it helps in coordinating the
relationship between the stakeholders.
Interpersonal communication skills in nursing
In most health care places, the first contact persons are nurses and patients; for instance,
patients’ first people to meet are nurses. In this connection, nurses are required to possess
interpersonal communication skills. Nurses who have skills in communication usually help in
establishing trust with patients and bring cooperative responses to treatment plans (Harrison,
2014). Consequently, any positive relationship is important for quick patient recovery.
The following are interpersonal communication skills that can help nurses achieve a
good rapport with patients
 Patience
Patience plays an important role in fostering effective communication between parties. It is
important for a nurse to practice patience during communication with a patient so that both of
them can listen to each other. Patience will help both the nurse and the patient to understand
one another, therefore, helping the nurse to know the patient's problem. It can also be noted
that patience can also be practiced when health officers or nurses hold meetings where
basically conversation is taking place. In such meetings, it is expected that participants

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practice patience so that good communication can be achieved and each individual’s opinion
is respected.
 Proper listening
A good listening technique is important in ensuring effective communication. During any
conversation, it is important for the participants to listen to one another and allow views of
each of them. Without good listening techniques, any communication may not be successful
in the end. Good listening also helps prevent conflicts in communication because it will
regulate disruption during communication (Sole, 2012). In fact, nursing professionals can use
conflict resolution as a tool for a positive learning opportunity. It is known that conflicts arise
because of variables like opposing opinions, beliefs, and emotional states. Interpersonal
conflict will take place when two or more participants in a conversation fail to consider
proper listening during communication. Therefore, failure to listen will automatically lead to
disagreements because we may not allow the varied opinions of our fellow listeners involved
in a communication.
 Team spirit
Good teamwork usually relates to interpersonal communication whose aim is to improve the
performance of an organization and the creation of job satisfaction. There are many factors
that shape the nursing professional's nature, especially when working and having a good
communication platform (Miller, Biggart, and Newton, 2013). These factors include an
individual’s emotions, perceptions, and experiences which are fundamental things contained
in any form of communication involving more than one individual. However, the control of
some of these factors may be difficult; nurses are required to consider working on building
effective teams. The team environment is necessary for the provision of support to
interpersonal communication. The teamwork incorporation with interpersonal communication

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will help considerably with life circumstances which sometimes make communication
disintegrate (Lavy, 2013). It is important to note that nurses who work well together are
likely to foster high morale and maintain safe working environments for both patients and the
public. Additionally, nurses who work as a team usually find it easy to manage stress and
enjoy greater job satisfaction and also improved the quality of services provided.
Self- reflection on the use of interpersonal skills
Finally, it is important to record that communication is an intrinsic characteristic of human
nature. It has to come from within an individual. Communication is known to have content
and value. The contents, in this case, regard to what is said and the nature of the relationship
is dependent on how two parties understand the communication process (Battell, 2014).
Communication involves two parties; therefore, it is bidirectional in which each sender turns
to be a receiver and vice versa. To achieve a good communication strategy, nurses are
required to understand their patients, demonstrate courtesy, kindness and to be sincere to
patients and fellow nurses. It is important to note that nursing is one of health care sciences
that combines biology and psychology of human creature.
References
Battell, C. (2014). Effective listening (1st ed.).Alexandria, Va.: ASTD Press.

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Help guide. (2016). Nonverbal Communication: Improving Your Nonverbal Skills and
Reading Body Language. Helpguide.org. Retrieved 25 November 2016, from
http://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships/nonverbal-communication.htm
Harrison, F. (2014). Effective communication. The Communication Guide 2(3), 12-17.
Lavy, I. (2013). Soft Skills – An Important Key to Communication in the "Shift to a Service-
Driven Economy" Era. International Journal of e-Education, e-Business, e-Management, and
e-Learning.
Miller, L., Biggart, A., and Newton, B. (2013). Basic Communication skills. International
Journal of Training and Development, 17(3), pp.173-175
Sole, K. (2012). Making connections: Understanding interpersonal communications. Bridge
point. C 9.3-9.5.
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