Professional Communication Essay: Patient Safety in Healthcare

This essay delves into the critical role of professional communication in ensuring patient safety within healthcare settings, particularly emphasizing the significance of culturally appropriate communication. The essay uses a case study of a 66-year-old Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander female presenting for a health assessment to illustrate the importance of interpersonal and inter-professional communication in building trust, facilitating effective care, and addressing the patient's needs. It highlights how effective communication contributes to patient-centered care, incorporating principles such as empathy, dignity, autonomy, respect, choice, and transparency. The discussion references the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights, the Registered Nurse Standards for Practice, and the importance of documentation, including electronic health records. The essay concludes by underscoring the essential role of professional communication in safeguarding patient safety, optimizing patient benefits, and adhering to ethical and professional standards within the nursing profession. The references include key sources that support the claims made in the essay.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION ESSAY
Professional communication essay
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION ESSAY
Introduction:
For the medical care setting, significance of the professional communication is vital.
Interpersonal and inter-professional communication has an essential role in catering to the
exact care requirements of the patient and developing a safe and optimal care plan (Tobiano
et al., 2015). Likewise, proficient communication is vital as well in order to ensure providing
the patient with care that endorses utmost safety and wellbeing for the patients. Equally, for
ethnic patient population, the influence of the efficient and culturally safe communication is
critical. In this essay the significance of effective professional communication will be
explored with respect to how it ensures patient safety in multicultural patient care scenarios.
Discussion:
The case scenario illustrates a patient named Mary Chan, a 66 year old female
belonging to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, who had been brought to our
facility so that she could have her comprehensive health assessment done. Now, primarily,
discussing the significance of the inter-personal communication and adequate therapeutic
interaction while carrying out the assessment for Mary, comprehensive assessment is
typically the preliminary care activity completed for a patient. As a result, if there is a lack of
effective communication to aid the patients in feeling connected and valued is crucial which
also helps the patient to open up and be more frank with the nurses and express the precise
needs and complaints to the nursing care professional (McCabe & Timmins, 2013).
Similarly, communicating effectively while also assessing the patient helps with
maintaining patient safety. Patient safety is the series of actions taken in order to protect
patients from any harm by the care providers or nurses (Riley, 2015). As illustrated by
Levett-Jones et al. (2014), patient safety is a central characteristic that a renowned and
dependable health care facility or care organization must harbour. In addition, patient safety
also assists in addressing the fundamental ethical principle of Beneficence. It is the obligatory

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PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION ESSAY
responsibility of the care providers to partake in on the care activities that results in
benefiting the care receivers. Patient safety also confirms that the care providers protect the
patient’s best interests at all circumstances and they are never in the way for any harm while
receiving care. Levett-Jones (2013) has stated patient safety maintenance to be a complex
phenomenon, surrounding a range of diverse interconnected activities, which demands robust
communication skills from all care providers. This case study epitomizes Mary Chan, an
elderly indigenous female, and the significance of communication in ensuring patient safety
and addressing each of the optimal care outcomes.
As illustrated by Levett-Jones (2013), effective communication is not just limited to
delivery of information, in fact, communication within care delivery environment is a two
way interaction that aids in distribution of information, feelings and meaning. Furthermore,
the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights confers the nurse- patient communication as
inclusive, precise, timely along with apt. Furthermore, influence of efficient communication
is multidimensional on care outcomes, such as improved medicine adherence, decrease in
stress and anxiety, improved self-management, decrease in hospital days, decreased health
care price, improved patient satisfaction by the means of more patient- centred care. Patient
centred care is reinforced by 6 fundamental principles of nursing, namely, empathy, dignity,
autonomy, respect, choice, and transparency, and for every case, effective communication is
tremendously significant (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014).
Elaborating on the case scenario, the patient had been an aboriginal female, belonging
to a community that had been marginalized, socially isolated and pinned as outcasts across
different societal domains. Consequently, the first people of Australia are frequently seen
exhibiting resistance towards the health care industry and care providers attributed by either
fear of being discriminated, or for encountering communication barriers, particularly
language. It is central for the nurses to engross the patients in a culturally safe, effective and

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PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION ESSAY
appropriate communication, so as to help them feel valued and help them trust the nurses so
that they can eventually freely express their needs, desires, choices and grievances. Culturally
diverse communities such as the indigenous have a variety of traditional norms and customs
surrounding health along with healing, they also have an entirely unique interpretation of
wellbeing. Patient centred care has also been associated with culturally appropriate care
strongly, which also integrates concepts of traditional healing, that nurses can only address if
they can communicate properly and effectively. Even according to the registered nurse
practice standards of NMBA, standard 2 illustrates the influence of efficient communication
in creating therapeutic relations with the patients, along with respecting self-respect, culture,
morals, beliefs and human rights of the patients (Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au, 2019).
Lastly, Mary also has visited the organization to carry out a thorough patient
assessment, where documentation has a very integral part in patient care. Documentation can
be considered as the record of the entirety of all relevant interactions carried out by the care
provider with the patient, it can be in a written format or can also be electronically generated
(Mee, 2017). Henceforth, the nurse designated to Mary’s care will need to document the care
process accurately. The ICT based patient records also offer a simplified and easy
accessibility to the care cues, advancement and recovery status along with it. Henceforth,
effective communicate with Mary would be absolutely crucial for the nurses concerning the
usage of EHR or PHR amenities and monitoring her health status and recovery progress.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it can be stated that this essay discovered and emphasized on the
significance of efficient and culturally appropriate communication within the process
planning care and delivering it, particularly to guarantee extreme patient safety and following
ideal patient centred care principles. The essay inferred communication to not just be critical
for engaging therapeutically with the patient, it also has a huge roles in safeguarding patient

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PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION ESSAY
safety, optimizing patient benefits and even in documentation. The essay successfully
illustrated the part played by effective professional communication with regards to practice
standards of NMBA which has helped me recognize the significance of communication in my
profession and scope of practice

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PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION ESSAY
References:
Levett-Jones, T., Gilligan, C., Outram, S., & Horton, G. (2014). Key attributes of ‘patient
safe’communication. In Critical Conversations for Patient Safety: an Essential Guide
for Health Professionals. Pearson, Sydney.
Levett-Jones, T. (2013). Critical Conversations for Patient Safety. : Pearson Australia.
Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com Created from wsudt on 2017-01-23 15:44:21
Mee, J. (2017). Documenting, reporting and conferring. In R. Hill, H. Hall & P. Glew (Eds.),
Fundamental of nursing and midwifery: A person-centred approach to care (3rd
Australian and New Zealand ed., pp. 347-370). North Ryde, Australia: Lippincott
Williams & Wilkins Pty ltd.
Kourkouta, L., & Papathanasiou, I. V. (2014). Communication in nursing practice. Materia
socio-medica, 26(1), 65.
Riley, J. B. (2015). Communication in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.
McCabe, C., & Timmins, F. (2013). Communication skills for nursing practice. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Tobiano, G., Marshall, A., Bucknall, T., & Chaboyer, W. (2015). Patient participation in
nursing care on medical wards: an integrative review. International Journal of
Nursing Studies, 52(6), 1107-1120.
Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au (2019). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia -
Registered nurse standards for practice. [Online]. Retrieved from
https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/codes-guidelinesstatements/professional-
standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx. [Accessed on 31st Jan]