Analysis of Therapeutic Communication Skills in Pediatric Nursing

This report focuses on therapeutic communication skills within a pediatric healthcare context, specifically addressing a scenario where a 3-year-old child, Emily, is undergoing an immunization. It emphasizes the importance of the nurse's approach in calming the child and establishing a comfortable environment. The report outlines factors influencing communication, including cultural and situational aspects, and details various therapeutic communication techniques such as open-ended questions, active listening, and silence. It further describes the interview process, which involves establishing rapport, collecting information, and closing the session. The nurse's role in facilitating discussion, gathering health-related data, and recording information is highlighted. The report provides a comprehensive overview of effective communication strategies in pediatric nursing, supported by relevant references. The student report aims to provide nurses with a framework for improving communication and building trust with young patients.

Running Head: THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Therapeutic Community Skills
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THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Way of proceeding with the health interview
In the given scenario, Emily, who is 3-year-old toddler visit to the pediatrician office for
immunization. Emily is crying, shouting and seems upset that may be due to fear from her past
experience. The nurse is already aware that immunization of Emily is up to date, and thus, the
nurse should go for the interview by taking a few steps. At first, she needs to calm down the
child and then, ensure her that no one in the clinic is going to harm her in any manner. Then, the
nurse should acknowledge that the child will not have to get boo boo shot at that time. The nurse
should behave friendly and make Emily comfortable for the health interview.
List of factors affect communication
Communication is considered as a significant skill for sending or receiving messages to
the other. There are various factors that influence communication between the nurse and the
child. The factors are discussed below:
Cultural factors: The factor consists of language, customs, belief system and morality.
Language is the main barrier in communicating effectively. In the given case, the mother of the
child is Chinese, and hence, they communicate in the Chinese language. Language affects the
communication with the patient because of the difference in translations (Paternotte, van
Dulmen, van der Lee, Scherpbier & Scheele, 2015).
Situational factors: The factors involve social as well as the physical environment that
affects communication between two persons (Testa & Rossettini, 2016). In the given scenario,
the social environment of the pediatrician office or clinic where the checkup of children takes
place. Emily feels uncomfortable in that environment and afraid, which affects the
communication.
Communication technique
Several therapeutic communication techniques can be used for collecting data to
complete the health history of Emily. The communication techniques are as follows:
Use of open-ended questions: Open-ended questions are beneficial for the nurse to
collect full health data about the patient (Martin & Chanda, 2016). It will allow the child to
discuss her feelings with the nurse.

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THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Active listening: It is an essential part of therapeutic communication that shows the
interest of the nurse in understanding the conversation of the patient.
Silence: It is a technique that seems to be useful for the nurse when she wants to provide
ample time to the client for discussing her beliefs and opinions (da Silva et al., 2016). It provides
an opportunity to both Emily and the nurse to think the whole process.
Recognition: It is one of the therapeutic technique of communication that acknowledges
the behavior of the child in the given case. Recognition of the thoughts of the client gives the
nurse a chance to aware her that she has an interest in her.
Interview process
The interview process that takes place between the nurse and Emily goes through three
different steps which involves establish rapport, collect information and close. The role of a
nurse in interview process is to facilitate discussion to gather data related to health and record the
information. In the first step, the nurse introduce her to the child and describe the purpose of the
interview. The nurse gets an opportunity to make a personal connection with the client through a
positive attitude and confidence. In the second step, the nurse uses multiple therapeutic
communication techniques for communicating with the child, such as active listening and many
more. The nurse asks several open-ended questions to the child to gather information or data
related to the child's health. In the third step, the nurse summarizes all the key information
gathered from the client and allow the child to clarify all information if needed.

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References
Da Silva, J. R. S., Pizzoli, L. M. L., do Prado Amorim, A. R., Pinheiros, F. T., Romanini, G. C.,
da Silva, J. G., ... & Alves, S. S. (2016). Using therapeutic toys to facilitate venipuncture
procedure in preschool children. Pediatric nursing, 42(2), 61.
Martin, C. T., & Chanda, N. (2016). Mental health clinical simulation: therapeutic
communication. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 12(6), 209-214.
Paternotte, E., van Dulmen, S., van der Lee, N., Scherpbier, A. J., & Scheele, F. (2015). Factors
influencing intercultural doctor–patient communication: A realist review. Patient
education and counseling, 98(4), 420-445.
Testa, M., & Rossettini, G. (2016). Enhance placebo, avoid nocebo: How contextual factors
affect physiotherapy outcomes. Manual therapy, 24, 65-74.