Healthcare Report: Addressing Poor Interpersonal Skills of Nurses

This report addresses the challenge of poor interpersonal skills among nurses in a hospital, specifically focusing on Bowen, New Zealand. The executive summary highlights the analysis of the core problem and potential solutions to improve nurse-patient interactions. The report identifies lack of listening capacity and communication skills as key issues, and proposes strategies such as the SAGE and THYME model, enhancing communication skills through English language training, improving non-verbal skills, and managing voice tones. It emphasizes the importance of patience, empathy, and stress management for nurses. The report also includes a SWOT analysis for improving communication skills and a hierarchical decomposition process to break down the identified problems. The report offers practical recommendations to enhance the nurse-patient relationship, ultimately aiming to improve patient satisfaction and healthcare outcomes.

health management

Executive summary
The report is for finding a challenge in the recent work place/ hospital for analyzing the
main problem and to find 2 possible and 3 probable for the analyzed probable for the analyzed
problem. Then the solutions that are found for resolving the problem is explained in detail with
reasons.
This study is about the problems exist in the poor interpersonal skills of the nurses in a
hospital Bowen, New Zealand, when handling their clients” as the core challenge being faced at
the hospital. There are many complaints that the nurses and workers of the hospital do not treat
the patients in a kind and ethical way. By considering the challenge, analysis is performed on it.
2 possible and 3 probable for reducing the problem is discussed in detail. In the interpersonal
skills, communication problem is taken for analysis and hierarchical decomposition process is
done based on the communication problem. Then by the overall analysis, SWOT analysis is
performed for the solution of improving the skill of communication among nurses.
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Table of Contents
Executive summary...................................................................................................................................1
Background and Review...........................................................................................................................3
Scope of the Project...................................................................................................................................3
Importance of the Interpersonal Communication Skills....................................................................3
Reasons for the Poor Interpersonal Skills...........................................................................................4
2 Possible and 3 Probable to improve the Interpersonal Skill of Nurses...............................................4
1. Improving the lack of Listening Capacity of nurses................................................................4
2. Improving the lack in Communication Skills of the nurses....................................................6
3. Attainment of Patience and Empathy of the Nurses...............................................................6
4. Personal Stress Management....................................................................................................7
5. Improving the Humor Sense.....................................................................................................7
SWOT Analysis for improving the communication skill of nurses........................................................8
Hierarchical decomposition process.........................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................................10
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Background and Review
Being a Professional, the interpersonal skill is important. The profession that they
undergo is not a problem, every professional should have the interpersonal skill. The world wide
problem that exist almost in all hospitals is the barriers in the patient and the nurse relationship.
Patients expect kind words, sympathetic care and response from the nurse. But the nurses and
hospital workers fail to satisfy the patients. The problem of poor interpersonal skills among
nurses is considered as a main problem in the hospitals. This is taken as a main challenge for the
research. So this main problem is divided as two sub problems like which are the main barriers
for the poor interpersonal skills of the nurses. One is the capacity of listening and another one is
the lack of communication. If the nurses try to achieve the Interpersonal communication then it is
easy for them to get the fulfilment among the patients, compliance and the healthcare outcomes.
The blame and mistakes cannot be imposed only on nurses, the patients should also have a better
knowledge concerned with their health and cooperate with the care providers, then the
satisfaction may be attained. It is determined in the major countries that the communication is
lacking between the hospital workers and the patients (Negri, Brown, Hernández, Rosenbaum &
Roter, n.d.). Interpersonal Skills of the health care workers is considered as a main problem.
Then the sub problems of communication and listening is taken. The 2 possible and 3 probable
for the problem is discussed in this report.
Scope of the Project
The objective of the report is to determine main problem that rely in the hospitals in high
rate and then to divide the main problem into sub problems. Then sub problems are further
divided. The main problem is taken for analysis and then 2 possible, 3 probable for reducing the
problem is going to be explained in detail. The SWOT Analysis is performed for one of the 5
possible solutions. To make a hierarchical decomposition process for the determined problem.
Importance of the Interpersonal Communication Skills
In this report, it is taken that the poor interpersonal skill that is found among nurses is the
main barrier for the relationship between the patient and the nurses. Interpersonal skills is very
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important for every professional to behave in a ethical and in a professional way. The
interpersonal skill is very important for attaining the satisfaction of the patients and the proper
health care outcomes are being achieved by this smooth relationship. This poor interpersonal
skill among nurses exist because of the two main problems like lack of listening capacity and the
lack of communication skill among nurses. The listening capacity is one of the most important
thing in this profession. If only the least amount of time is taken for the implementation, the
results provided are the accuracy in diagnosis of the health problems and effective treatments to
treat those diagnosed problems. If the skill is said to be enhanced in a certain amount of time, the
amazing results of compliance of the patients with treatment process and people feel very
confident of their health is achieved. If it is executed in the maximum amount of time, then it
yields a good relief in symptoms of the diseases for the patients and it is used to reduce the
morbidity and mortality (Negri, Brown, Hernández, Rosenbaum & Roter, n.d.).
Reasons for the Poor Interpersonal Skills
The factors that is considered as a major barrier for affecting the relationship of the
patient and the health care taker are age group of the patients and nurses, gender problem. The
additional things that can be encountered as a barrier for the patient and the nurse relationship is
the surrounding of the hospital, time taken to wait for the response from the doctors and then the
cleanliness of the hospital. The patients wait more time in hospital for consulting the physician,
this makes them to get frustration which also becomes one of the barrier for the relationship
between the pateints and the nurses (Negri, Brown, Hernández, Rosenbaum & Roter, n.d.).
2 Possible and 3 Probable to improve the Interpersonal Skill of Nurses
1. Improving the lack of Listening Capacity of nurses
For the first question, the solution is discussed in this section. Listening is one of the
important skills of the nurses. Lack of listening is there among nurses. There are lot of evidences
and proofs are there in world wide to prove that nurses have poor skill in listening the patients.
SAGE and THYME model is the proposed model for listening to the problems of the patients
and responding to them. An appropriate professional listening is the basic quality of the nurse to
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get the positive effect on the health of patients. The SAGE & THYME model offers a structure
to attain a better listening skill ("Listening skills 1: How to improve your listening skills", 2016).
SAGE
S stands for Setting
Nurse should have a thinking about their surrounding in which they are working and then
listen what is happening around them.
A stands for Ask
Nurses have to confrim the patients about their problems in a kind way.
G stands for Gather
They have to combine the problems of the patients into a series, then have to note those
problems so that they will not forget them.
E stands for Empathy
They should give a empathetic response to the patient's feeling and then try to make their
mind free.
THYME
T stands for Talk
Nurses have to Ask the patients that whether they need support.
H stands for Help
The nurses should ask whether patients need help.
Y stands for You
They have to ask the patients that what would be able to make them feel better.
M stands for Me
They have to ask the patients what they want anything more from the hospital’s side in
relieving them from troubles.
E stands for End
This denotes the end of the conversation between the patient and the nurse.
2. Enhancing the Skill of Communication among nurses
The solution for the second question is discussed here in this section. The measures to
enhance the communication skill that is lacking among nurses are discussed in the below points.
It is important to teach English to the nurses who are non-native speakers (Wright, 2012).
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 Improvement has to be achieved in the lack of verbal communication skills like speaking
the words correctly and the pronunciation of the words should be correct.
Communication is the very important thing that is useful for them to talk with their
colleagues like other nurses, doctors and the patients.
 Improving the non-verbal skills is nothing but making the improvement in the body
language, to understand the status of the patients without experiencing their pains and
then the sympathetic response to their problems.
 Managing the voice is said to be an important thing to improvise the communication skill
of the nurses. It is not important to talk louder, but the tones and the pitches should be
placed in the right occasions of the speech. (Skills, 2017).
3. Attainment of Patience and Empathy of the Nurses
These are recommendations to overcome the third sub question. Nursing is described as a
great profession that helps to provide the empathetic care and sympathetic response to their
patients. The empathy and patience are the important features of the nurse profession ("The
Nurse-Patient Relationship", 2017). The empathy and patience are the important factors for the
smooth relation between the nurses and the patients. It also can engage and encourage the
patients well. By exposing the characters called patience and empathy, nurses get good places in
the hearts of the patients. The patients may get satisfied that the nurses are caring a lot to make
them for feeling better ("How Empathy Can Help Empower Patients", 2017). Duty time and
work pressure is also a main disadvantage for the nurses that lowers their energy to listen the
patients. The timings of their shift which is above 10 hours make them to loss their patience.
Training should be given to the nurses about treating the patients with empathetic care and
support. (BSN, 2017).
4. Personal Stress Management
The remedy to manage the stress in their work is explained in this section. The research
and evidences of the research work shows that the nursing is a profession that contains lot of
stress in their work. The nurses spend their energy levels in many of the different works. They
undergo not only mental stress but also they get stress physically like pains in their muscles and
body pains. The stress is divided as three levels and remedies to get rid of stress for each level is
discussed in this section. Level 1 is nothing the simple thing is to manage their Lifestyle. The
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nurses have to Plan to visit places during holidays. The energy level can be retained only by the
intake of healthy diet. There are many strategies to get rid of the stress. They have to find the
type of stress that they undergo then the necessary strategy to resolve the stress is to be handled
(Mahmoudian, Heydari & Zolghadrnia, 2016). The nurses who undergo the second level in stress
can take steps to experience some relaxations to burn the stress. Relaxation means like paying
attention to some melodious music or going deeper in seeing some favorite movies. Meditation
and doing yoga can also be performed for those who are in this level. They can speak out about
their feelings and pain to their friends and family who may give them a support. The third level
is the last stage that needs to go for counselling to a physician and taking some medications from
the physicians. They can go for counselling to get relief both physically and mentally.
Ultimately, it is the better advice to take some temporary break from their hospital work to get
rid of the stress (Murray, 2017).
5. Improving the Humor Sense
The tips to improve their humor sense is discussed here. The important aspect of the
nurse is to act as a professional when handling patients but there is no policies and programs that
reveals that the nurses should not use humor sense to patients in some of the occasions rarely.
Humor is considered to be the best medicine which can throw the problems (Magrath, 2017). If a
patient is struggling with pain, she can use her sense of humor as a weapon to make them to feel
happy. Major results of studies of the sociological and psychological studies had shown that the
humor sense can make the tension to get reduced, helps to make the level of the blood pressure
in a normal value (Zavotsky, Ciccarelli, Pontieri-Lewis, Royal & Russer, 2016). So nurses can
take this humor and laughing therapy as a weapon to eradicate the barriers of the nurse- patient
relationship.
SWOT Analysis for improving the communication skill of nurses
SWOT Analysis is the analysis that is performed based on 4 aspects like Strength,
Weakness, Opportunities and Threats. The communication skill of nurses is analyzed on 4
different aspects such as Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats.
Strengths of Communication Skill of nurses
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 A Healthy relationship is maintained between the Patient and the nurse.
 Patients can understand the treatment and the medications clearly.
 Diagnosis of the disease is absolute and the treatment is also better in right way.
 Patient Satisfaction is attained because of their healthy relationship.
Weakness of Communication Skill of nurses
 The patients may feel frustrated about the staffs of the hospital.
 The patients who are not much educated may not be comfortable with English which is a
common language for communication.
 The patients who are native to the land should be talked in native language.
Opportunities of Communication Skill of nurses
 When patients get satisfied, they encourage some of their friends and family members to
the same hospital because of the excellent charcteristics of the nurses.
 The health care providers may experience other offers with better pay because of their
improved communication skill.
Threats of the Communication Skill of nurses
 If the communication between the patient and nurse is not good, then it may even result
in the Patient death because of some misbehaviors.
 The patient may not understand the terms that are said technically by the nurse.
Hierarchical decomposition process
The hierarchical decomposition process for improving the poor interpersonal skill of the
nurses is illustrated in the below diagram. The main barrier for the patient-nurse relationship is
considered as the poor interpersonal skill of the hospital workers and the nurses . There are two
sub questions for improving poor interpersonal skills. The two sub questions are further
decomposed into 4 sub divisions.
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In this hierarchical decomposition process, the poor interpersonal skill among nurses is
taken as a main problem of the hospital. Then the main problem is divided into 2 sub problems.
One of the sub problem that is found in hospitals is the communication problem between the
patients and the nurses. The communication problem is further divided into another 4 sub
problems.
A5 – Is the Age factor becomes a problem?
The problem that is barrier to affect the patient and nurse relation is the communication.
The nurses gets irritated easily. A survey has shown that most of the nurses are at the age
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between 30-36. So absolutely they will be married. They have to tackle the problems at family
and at the work place (Norouzinia, Aghabarari, Shiri, Karimi & Samami, 2015).
A6 - Is the response of nurse is unsympathetic to the complaints of the patients?
The unsympathetic response of the health care providers to the patients is considered as one of
the main barriers. As the nurses are also a human, they should have some sympathy towards the
patients. The patients are already fighting with their problems in health and this unsympathetic
behavior makes them into a mental pain (White, 2017).
A7 - Is there any factor that affect the communication between Nurse and patient’s family?
The problems arise not only between the patient and the nurse, but also between the nurse and
the family members of the patients. This may affect the patients indirectly. The nurses behave
rude or strict to visit patients sometimes. This is also found commonly in hospitals.
A8 - Is the follow-up instructions for the treatment is goes wrong?
Because of the communication problem, some patients may understand the follow-up
instructions or medications in a wrong way. So this is a major barrier that is related with the
patient-nurse relationship (White, 2017).
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