Analysis of Therapeutic Communication: NUR1102 Aged Care Scenario

This essay analyzes a case study involving an 86-year-old patient, Ms. Alice Holt, in an aged care facility experiencing confusion and disorientation, to identify and discuss the therapeutic communication required. The essay delves into ineffective communication instances between the nurse and patient, emphasizing the significance of therapeutic communication, especially for patients like Ms. Holt. It explores the concept of care, examining how it contributes to achieving effective therapeutic communication, and provides suitable strategies, skills, and approaches for nurses, patients, and families. The essay also reflects on the author's emerging health literacy skills relative to the case study. The analysis emphasizes the importance of building trust, empathy, and clear communication to improve patient care and outcomes. The essay concludes with the importance of effective communication in delivering appropriate care services, including the use of effective skills by nursing staff to increase effectiveness of their performance and attaining satisfaction of clients.

LITERACIES AND
COMMUNICATION FOR
HEALTH CARE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY........................................................................................................................................4
Provide an analysis of the selected scenario where there is an ineffective communication among the
nurse and patient................................................................................................................................4
Explain the concept of care which is suitable and how it contributes to achieve effective therapeutic
communication..................................................................................................................................4
Explain the strategies, skills and approaches which is best and most suitable to support therapeutic
communication among the nurses, patient and family in the chosen scenario...................................5
Reflect on your emerging health literacy skills relative to the case study..........................................6
CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................................................6
From the above project, it has been concluded that communication can be considered as an important
factor which must be focussed by medical professionals in order to deliver appropriate care services.
It includes the way of using effective as well as efficient communications methods in terms of
managing accuracy of communication which impact the decision making of treatment. However, it is
observed that accurate sharing of patient data is favourable to avoid the problems of drugs error and
clinical mistakes along with delivering better quality of care for selected patient. It includes the use of
healthy conversation to make client comfortable and formulate effective therapeutic relationships that
affect positively on treatment of patient and respective outcomes. Moreover, it involves the use of
effective skills by nursing staff to increase effectiveness of their performance and attaining
satisfaction of clients.............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals............................................................................................................................8
INTRODUCTION
Communication refers to a practice of exchanging the information of patients and relevant
data of medical examination or other treatment. It includes the criterion of providing the
effective care services in order to provide the appropriate care services with the help of
making accurate conversation (Fotopoulou, 2020). However, it is very important for care
professionals to consider effective communication to deliver appropriate treatment and
medication for their wellbeing. In context of this project, it is based on the case study of
patient named Alice Holt facing episodes of confusion as well as disorientation in an Aged
Care facility. This assignment will focus on analysing the ineffective communication between
client and nurse and concept of care related to selected case scenario including effective
therapeutic communication. It will also include the efficient strategies, skill and approaches

best suitable and supportive for therapeutic communication between the nurse, client &
family. The reflect of health literacy skills are given below.
MAIN BODY
Provide an analysis of the selected scenario where there is an ineffective communication
among the nurse and patient
The present case study is based on a person named as Ms Alice Holt, 86 year old is one
of the patients at an Aged Care facility. Ms Holt has episodes of confusion and Disorientation
in the facility. In this case study we will be looking into therapeutic communication and why
it is important for all patients but especially patients like Ms Holt. It is important we identify
why our patient is upset and respond quickly to address any issues. We will be looking into
the case study and discussing any ineffective communication and how this can be resolved
but also so that way it doesn’t happen again in the future.
Therapeutic communication is an important part of nursing care and requires skill, it
increases patients to take part in their care progress and helps build that relationship between
nurse and patient. Being a nurse is an extremely rewarding and fulling job, but it can also be
physically and mentally draining (Bivens and et. al., 2018). When looking after a patient it
can be challenging to deliver emotional and physical support however this is a critical part of
the patient’s wellbeing and health. It is important to create a nurse and patient relationship as
this will display persons centred care and will be a big influence in the recovery stage. When
with a patient it is important to always greet them by name, show that you are confident in
your job and make eye contact. You should always explain what you are doing as this leaves
the patient feeling involved with there care. It is a critical part of nursing that we are always
providing therapeutic communication as well.
Explain the concept of care which is suitable and how it contributes to achieve effective
therapeutic communication
Therapeutic Communication is best defined as the “Face to face process of interacting that
focuses on achieving the physical and emotional wellbeing of a patient, person or client.”
(Communication Lecture, week 1). The Fundaments of Therapeutic Communication is about
making the patient feel cared for and understood, developing a trusting relationship between
nurse and Patient and helps the nurses educate their patients on their situation. It is also about
recognising any input family or friends makes so that way you are delivering the right care

for your patient. It can be very overwhelming for patients when having a failing memory, the
best thing you can do as a nurse is be patient and be empathetic towards their situation. When
looking at the case study you can see there has ineffective communication between the nurse
and patient (Theron, Borycki and Redmond, 2017). Ms Holt is asking for the past nurse who
was looking after her and is quit confused and upset about the matter. Her daughter walks in
noticing how upset her mother is and states that she hasn’t seen her like that before.
Looking at the information provided in the study the first thing to be suggested which would
have made the communication between all parties a lot smoother is doing a hand over in front
of Ms Holt and explaining to her that the other nurse has now finished her shift and you will
now be taking care of her. This would have been a great time for Ms Palmer to express any
types of concerns she may have with her pervious nurse and might have cleared up any
confusion. This step would have been effective communication because the intended message
would have been successfully understood by the individual. Its important we acknowledge
how difficult it can be for her with all the different changes (Perry, 2020). Following we need
to address the daughter and explain the situation. Seeing a family member upset is always
hard so making sure you are giving not only the patients by the family members the support
they need as well.
When explaining a situation like this its important you make it a relaxed and calming
environment creating the best therapeutic communication. This will make the family feel
cared for and more understanding of the situation and will also help Ms Holt and the family
to be able to raise any concerns they may have. Its important when being in such a situation
to understand that the loved ones do get upset and for you do deliver the best care it’s about
staying calm and focused this can have the effect of relaxing them as well. ‘perhaps the most
important characteristic of a therapeutic relationship is the development of trust. Trust
facilitates constructive communication; it also encourages confidence and autonomy. Being
nonjudgmental is necessary in verbal and nonverbal communication (Ranahan and Thomas,
2017). People are acutely adept at identifying nonverbal cues that may communicate
something very different from what is said.”
Explain the strategies, skills and approaches which is best and most suitable to support
therapeutic communication among the nurses, patient and family in the chosen scenario.
Moving forward the best a nurse can do is to try to develop that trust between
themselves and patient. For Ms Holt she needs someone who will be able to give her empathy

and give her time. When she is upset the best thing for her would be just taking a seat next to
her bed and talk through her concerns with her. Show her you care and that she not just a
patient to you. It is important we continue to educate Ms holt and her family on her current
situation and support them when they need to make any decision making. Another good
option may be involving the daughter in the 5 phase of nursing process so informing her on
the assessing/ Diagnosing/ Planning / implementing and evaluating. These five steps are an
adaption of problem-solving and system theory so it could provide the reassurance the
daughter needs when see hears all of your steps (Kachorsky and Serafini, 2019). Therefore
with this case study, it is critical the nurse understands where the failed communication has
happened. Looking at it from an outside point of view there should have been a handover
done in front of Ms holt. the nursing student should have walked in there confidently and
greeted her name and introduced herself while walking over to help her. It is important to
understand that when a patient is upset, it can be hard for them to remain calm, but the best
thing for the nurse to do is to remain patient and calm throughout the situation.
Reflect on your emerging health literacy skills relative to the case study.
Considering my own health literacy skills, it has been analysed that some of clinical skills are
perfect whereas few are not on which I have to work harm to improve them. It is very
important for me to develop skill of making communication to reduce the fear factor an
uncomforted condition of clients while establishing appropriate therapeutic relationships with
them. I am able to formulate a mutual understanding and a good therapeutic relation with
client. At the time, if patient was afraid of medical staff then it is quite difficult for me to
make conversation which has potential to make the comfortable. However, it has been
identified that my team work skills are efficient which are favourable to perform in
collaboration with different departmental groups in flexible healthcare settings. It is easy for
me to work with superiors collaboratively with effective cooperation as well as coordination
that impact positively on entire clinical tasks in order to make an individual disease free
respectively. Moreover, I have a problem with my clinical skill related to manage extreme
level of violent behaviour of psychological patients which is required to be improved
compulsorily.
CONCLUSION

From the above project, it has been concluded that communication can be considered as an
important factor which must be focussed by medical professionals in order to deliver
appropriate care services. It includes the way of using effective as well as efficient
communications methods in terms of managing accuracy of communication which impact the
decision making of treatment. However, it is observed that accurate sharing of patient data is
favourable to avoid the problems of drugs error and clinical mistakes along with delivering
better quality of care for selected patient. It includes the use of healthy conversation to make
client comfortable and formulate effective therapeutic relationships that affect positively on
treatment of patient and respective outcomes. Moreover, it involves the use of effective skills
by nursing staff to increase effectiveness of their performance and attaining satisfaction of
clients.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fotopoulou, A. (2020). Conceptualising critical data literacies for civil society organisations:
agency, care, and social responsibility. Information, Communication & Society, 1-18.
Bivens, K. M. & et. al. (2018). A multisensory literacy approach to biomedical healthcare
technologies: Aural, tactile, and visual layered health literacies.
Theron, M., Borycki, E. M., & Redmond, A. (2017). Developing digital literacies in
undergraduate nursing studies: from research to the classroom. In Health Professionals'
Education in the Age of Clinical Information Systems, Mobile Computing and Social
Networks (pp. 149-173). Academic Press.
Perry, M. (2020). Unpacking the imaginary in literacies of globality. Discourse: Studies in
the Cultural Politics of Education, 41(4), 574-586.
Kachorsky, D., & Serafini, F. (2019). From Picturebooks to Propaganda: Developing Visual
and Multimodal Literacies. In Teaching Literature and Language Through Multimodal Texts
(pp. 70-92). IGI Global.
Ranahan, P., & Thomas, T. (2017). Mental health literacies for interprofessional
collaboration: Youth workers’ perspectives on constraining and supporting factors. Canadian
journal of community mental health, 35(3), 69-81.