Literacies and Communication for Health Care Case Study Analysis

This case study analyzes a health care scenario involving an 86-year-old patient named Helena Gezrick, focusing on the effectiveness of verbal and nonverbal communication. The student, Snigdha Acharya, explores instances of ineffective communication, such as mismatched patient reports and inappropriate language used by the nurse, leading to patient distress. The analysis incorporates the SOAP note format to document subjective and objective findings, assessment, and a plan for patient care, and the SBAR approach is used to structure communication regarding a tense situation. The assignment highlights the importance of clear, empathetic, and accurate communication in healthcare, emphasizing ethical considerations and the impact of communication on patient well-being and outcomes. References to academic sources support the analysis.

Literacies and
Communication for
Health Care
Case Study Analysis

Introduction
• Self Introduction
Hello Friends this is Snigdha Acharya.
I belong to Nepal and carry a helping and caring attitude which
has been one of the reasons for taking Nursing as my career.
On technical grounds I carry a diploma degree in nursing from an
institution belonging to my origin country.
Have even served as a nurse for two years in ICU and operation
theatre in one of my country’s hospital.

Continued…
• Overview
 Case study of Helena Gezrick, age 86 years is to be explored in the
discussion.
Non Verbal and Verbal Communication with the effective and non
effective concepts would be presented.
Verbal Communication would be done through using the SOAP format
documents for clinical handover
Non Verbal Communication would be presented through SBAR format

Analysis of Verbal
Communication
 The primary ineffective action of the nurse has
been that she mismatched the reports of the two
patients, that is of Helena with some other patient
(Andersson et al. 2017).
 The nurse has uttered some praising words to
Helena which has been impacting her mentally
and all the fuss was created through it.
The nurse spoke to her patient loudly which is not
an ethical action to be executed by the health care
professional (Aronowitz et al. 2017).

Continued…
 Helena has been carrying a thought of visiting her home
in the coming days which was a false hope given by the
nurse unintentionally.
 The situation could have been handled well by the nurse
through checking on the reports or medical history
(Drahnak et al. 2016).
 A nurse requires to be cool minded in all situations and
specifically with the patient and her family.

Analysis of Non Verbal
Communication
 The ethics of Healthcare industry reveals that the health
care workers or care takers should carry a calm
personality and confident outlook (McInnis & Martinez,
2016).
 The nurse of Helena has been quite aggressive in her
actions, as she spoke loudly to her patient through
reaching to her ears.
 The body language of the nurse should be confined and
should reveal calmness and be organised and specific in
her actions.

SOAP Note
 Subjective
• Helena has been undergoing more of mental illness than physical.
 Onset: Mentally disturbed because of losing her husband
Location: Mentally ill
Character: Upsetting, Depressed
Alleviating Factors: Bottled up emotions, Frustration, unsatisfied
Radiation: Reacts unexpectedly
Temporal Patterns: Unexpected, anytime it could occur
Symptoms Associated: Reacts in a different pattern

Continued…
 Objective
• Helena has been normal and her body has been responding normally. The age
factor has been the main factor for her incapability of executing her activities.
Mental disappointment has been the major issue (O'Rourke et al. 2018).
Assessment
• The assessment for Helena has been to deal her with patience and calmly.
 Plan
• Provide medicines of depression and deal with the unsatisfied mental issues
calmly and provide motivation to live (Oudshoorn & Sinclair, 2015).

SBAR Approach
SBAR stands for Situation, Background, Assessment and
Recommendations.
Situation
I am the nurse of Helena Gezrisck who is 86 years old, stays at
her home.
I am calling because the situation has been tensed and an
unwanted scenario has developed through a misunderstanding
between my intentions and her son’s emotions (Renz et al. 2015).
I am concerned that the patient might get impacted by the
argument or the situation that arose and her pulse or blood
pressure might collapse.

Continued…
 Background
Helena Gezrick is of 86 years old and has been suffering
from old age issues.
The primary issue or problem is that she has been upset and
depressed about her husband loss, seven months ago.
She in depression and carries a last wish of staying at her
husbands home the rest of her life.
She just wants to return back to her home.

Continued…
Assessment
I don’t known what the problem is as I have tried to explain the situation to
his son and to her but the over reaction of his son and uncontrollable
emotions of his son has created all this mess. But I am really worried about
Helena as she carries no disease or illness, all she needs is to be satisfied
with her life (Sterling et al. 2019).
Recommendations
I need some effective solution for handling the situation in the most effective
way. I agreed to it that I have wrongly acknowledged the report of two
patients, how I could make up for my mistake.

Conclusion
 Verbal Communication makes the working of the health
care sector quite accurate and authentic.
 Written Communication acts as a acting report for the
executors of health care sector.
 Communication is highly important in health care sector.

References
• Andersson, P., Renvert, S., Sjogren, P., & Zimmerman, M. (2017). Dental status in nursing home residents with domiciliary dental care in
Sweden. Community dental health, 34(4), 203-207.
• Aronowitz, T., Aronowitz, S., Mardin-Small, J., & Kim, B. (2017). Using Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) as education in
advanced practice registered nursing education. Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(2), 119-125.
• Drahnak, D. M., Hravnak, M., Ren, D., Haines, A. J., & Tuite, P. (2016). Scripting nurse communication to improve sepsis care. MedSurg
Nursing, 25(4), 233.
• Drahnak, D. M., Hravnak, M., Ren, D., Haines, A. J., & Tuite, P. (2016). Scripting nurse communication to improve sepsis care. MedSurg
Nursing, 25(4), 233.
• McInnis, D. D. A., & Martinez-Anderson, F. M. D. (2016). THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT TYLER COLLEGE OF NURSING & HEALTH
SCIENCES. Cell, 713, 397-9773.
• O'Rourke, J., Abraham, J., Riesenberg, L. A., Matson, J., & Lopez, K. D. (2018). A Delphi study to identify the core components of nurse to
nurse handoff. Journal of advanced nursing, 74(7), 1659-1671.
• Oudshoorn, A., & Sinclair, B. (2015). Using unfolding simulations to teach mental health concepts in undergraduate nursing
education. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(9), 396-401.
• Renz, S. M., Boltz, M. P., Capezuti, E., & Wagner, L. M. (2015). Implementing an SBAR communication protocol: A quality improvement
project. Annals of Long-Term Care, 23(7), 27-31.
• Sterling, N. W., Patzer, R. E., Di, M., & Schrager, J. D. (2019). Prediction of Emergency Department Patient Disposition Based on Natural
Language Processing of Triage Notes. International Journal of Medical Informatics.