Importance of Therapeutic Communication in Nursing: A Case Study

This case study examines the critical role of therapeutic communication in nursing, emphasizing its significance in establishing trust, fostering therapeutic relationships, and promoting patient-centered care. The case focuses on Mr. George Pham, a 73-year-old patient seeking lifestyle changes, highlighting how nurses utilize communication skills to assess needs, provide holistic care, and improve patient outcomes. The analysis covers verbal and non-verbal communication techniques, the importance of patient education on healthy habits, and the application of NMBA codes for nursing practice. It also discusses the necessity of proper documentation to prevent medication errors and ensure comprehensive patient care, including counseling, nutrition education, and healthy lifestyle practices. Ultimately, the study underscores how effective communication, a patient-centered approach, and thorough documentation contribute to building constructive therapeutic relationships and endorsing safe, quality care.

Introduction-
Therapeutic communication is a vital tool used by the nurses to build trust and rapport that act as
a basis for developing a therapeutic relationship with the patient. The nurses use good
communication skill to develop and maintain a patient-nurse relationship. The nurses
communicate with the patient and their family member to facilitate patient-centered care (Arnold
& Boggs, 2019). The communication skills allow the nurse to assess and understand the minute
details about the patient health needs and contribute towards holistic care and optimal patient
outcomes. Communication in nursing is pivotal in building a therapeutic relationship with the
patient and enhances patient safety (Perry, Potter, &Ostendorf, 2015). In this essay, a case study
of Mr. George Pham (age-73) will be discussed who recently visited the nurse with some minor
health issues and want some positive changes in his life through lifestyle interventions.
Several kinds of the literature suggest that the use of useful communication tool is very
important to build a therapeutic relationship and promote safe care for the patient.
Communication also facilitates patient-centered care which is nothing but a clinical collaboration
between nurses, patient and their relatives to understand the disease phenomenon, the process of
care, collective goals and implementation of intervention based on evidence. As per the case
study, the nurses can provide adequate intervention for Mr. George through a patient-centered
approach. Until Mr. George visit to nursing care unit, he is having some minor health issues
because of his aging condition and stressful life. He doesn’t have a good eating habit and
consumes alcohol daily. The nurses can try to build up a partnership with Mr. George to make
him feel like an integral part of the care regimen. Mr. George is an elderly patient and it is
always a good practice to make them feel valued and support their autonomy. The nurse can try
encouraging an open discussion with him after the assessment process is completed regarding his
health issues. After a thorough assessment, the nurse identified that Mr. George consumed a
heavy dose of alcohol and was a smoker since the past several years (Molony, Kolanowski, Van
Haitsma, & Rooney, 2018). His eating habit was quite unhealthy and it will be great if the nurse
educates him regarding a healthy lifestyle and promote healthy eating habit. The nurse can team
up with a counselor and discuss with Mr. George regarding the risk factors associated with heavy
alcohol consumption and its correlation with the stress. The nurses need to demonstrate both
verbal and non verbal communication, particularly while engaged with caring for elderly people.

It is because their memory and ways of expressing their feelings gets reduced drastically. Non
Verbal communication in such cases will be helpful. Through active communication, the nurse
can take a patient-centered approach by providing Mr. George with various treatment options
such as through counseling, interaction with experts and appointing quit coach. Mr. George will
be explained about each intervention in detail and his opinion will be taken before taking the
final decision on his intervention (Fitchett, Emanuel, Handzo, Boyken, &Wilkie, 2015).
According to the initial assessment, Mr. George was reportedly consuming junk and unhealthy
food such as fried noodles in a higher amount. Such consumption can be quite harmful at this age
for him. The nurse and dietician can collaborate with Mr. George and educate him regarding the
nutrition requirement at his age, about food labels and consumption of a healthy diet. It will
enhance his health and will facilitate a better health outcome. According to the NMBA codes for
nursing practice, the standards suggest that the nurse must initiate healthy communication to
facilitate a therapeutic relationship with the patient. They must provide appropriate knowledge
about the intervention to the patient (NMBA, 2016). Based on this standard, the nurses providing
care must incorporate a professional communication and must focus on the primary healthcare
needs of Mr. George, provide education about the needs to him and promote self-care. It can be
observed that through therapeutic communication, the nurse can collaboratively provide safe and
quality person-centered care. The care regimen discussed in the previous section can help Mr.
George to address his healthcare requirement by adopting a person-centered approach (Brooks-
Cartho, Lasater, Rearden, Holland, & Sloane, 2016).
Another important need to develop patient-centered care through communication is appropriate
documentation. The NMBA codes of nursing practice suggest that proper documentation is very
important for a quality healthcare outcome for the patient. The nurse must note and document the
entire assessment in details along with the medical history, social history and eating habit of Mr.
George. It will help the other health professional involved in the case to get a proper
understanding of Mr. George health condition. Most of the medication error occurs because of
inappropriate documentation about the patient by the healthcare professional. The nurses
providing education to Mr. George must be documented as well. Mr. George is an elderly patient
and leads a stressful and busy life. It will be difficult for him to remember about his medication
and diet schedule. Therefore, the medication prescribed to him must be given in a written

document. He may refer to it before the administration about appropriate timing and dosage of
the medication. It will help in preventing medication error and further health complication
associated with it (Sharp, McAllister, Broadbent, 2018).
Conclusion-
The nurses communicate with the patient and their family member to facilitate patient-centered
care. The communication skills allow the nurse to assess and understand the minute details about
the patient health needs and contribute towards holistic care and optimal patient outcomes. The
essay helped in understanding the significance of therapeutic communication to ensure in
achieving an optimal patient outcome. The case study also demonstrated the use of person-
centered communication approach that can be used as a key attribute for strengthening the
relationship between patient and their relatives with the healthcare professionals. It also
demonstrates the idea of safe and quality care by practicing within the scope of the nursing
standard. The nurses also provided a focused intervention according to Mr. George’s need and
provided counseling in case of alcohol consumption, nutrition education and healthy lifestyle
practice to enhance his overall health and wellbeing. Therefore, through collaboration,
appropriate communication, patient-centered approach and documentation; the nurse tried
building a constructive therapeutic relationship and endorses safe care for Mr. George.
References-
Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2019). Interpersonal Relationships E-Book: Professional
Communication Skills for Nurses. Saunders.
Brooks-Carthon, J. M., Lasater, K. B., Rearden, J., Holland, S., & Sloane, D. M. (2016). Unmet
nursing care linked to rehospitalizations among older black AMI patients: a cross-sectional study
of US hospitals. Medical care, 54(5), 457.
Sharp, S., McAllister, M., & Broadbent, M. (2016). The vital blend of clinical competence and
compassion: How patients experience person-centred care. Contemporary nurse, 52(2-3), 300-
312.

Fitchett, G., Emanuel, L., Handzo, G., Boyken, L., &Wilkie, D. J. (2015). Care of the human
spirit and the role of dignity therapy: a systematic review of dignity therapy research. BMC
palliative care, 14(1), 8.
Molony, S. L., Kolanowski, A., Van Haitsma, K., & Rooney, K. E. (2018).Person-centered
assessment and care planning. The Gerontologist, 58(suppl_1), S32-S47.
Perry, A. G., Potter, P. A., &Ostendorf, W. (2015). Nursing Interventions & Clinical Skills-E-
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