Silence In Health And Social Care

This assignment is a reflective account on communicating with a patient who cannot communicate verbally. To remain confidential I will call the patient, Patient A. I’m going to discuss the importance of non-verbal communication within a healthcare setting. Patient A was a 63 year old lady suffering from MND which resulted in her losing her speech.

I will stay calm and will not be nervous during the interaction. I will do this by focusing on the needs of my patient and by trying to understand how she is feeling in this situation. I will ask open ended questions. I will do this in order to foster a meaningful conversation and to allow my patient to answer questions in her own way. I will use silence throughout my interaction in order to give my patient time to think about what she wants to say. I will do this by waiting for her answers and by encouraging my patient to take part in our interaction.

Another non-verbal communication skill that I learned to use effectively was silence as it gave both the patient and the nurse time to reflect upon previous or future events in the patient’s care, although it is important to ensure that the patient’s needs are still met and that the focus is still on them. Therefore it is important that the nurse involves the patient through other means of communication.

Since I took the time to sit down with a patient, I was able to effectively use the therapeutic technique encouraging or offering general leads. As I was taking the patients health history, my patient would answer yes or no to some questions such as “have you had any surgeries before?” My patient said yes and gave no further explanation. I used the encouraging therapeutic technique by replying “tell me more” to let the patient know I was interested in his life and what he had to say. An alternative statement I could have used as well would have been “go

Finally, when I finished taking the vital signs I appreciate to the patient thank you for your Participation. After finished my role play I realise participation word is not appropriate. Instead of that I have to say thank you for your cooperation. I feel this is the best way to communicate between nurse and patient.

Self-awareness is another important aspect to consider during this stage. I try to prepare myself for the encounter with a patient by clearing my mind from any distractions/stresses caused by previous consultations, so that I can focus entirely on the new patient. Walsh, Crumbie and Reveley (2004) explain that consultations can be stressful and emotionally draining and, in a busy clinical environment, it is easy to hang on to charged emotions from a previous encounter. Kaufman (2008) agrees that before the patient arrives in the room the practitioner should deal with, or at least acknowledge any negative feelings or stress.

Investigating problems on both the doctors and patients side during the interaction at any medical appointment is key when interpreting statistics that relate to this matter. These aspects will be further explored later in this paper. The general consensus from many articles and studies indicate that miscommunication is a massive problem that impacts many individuals who die each year from miscommunication. Furthermore, each article shows a different perspective on where this error comes from and where, both doctor and patient, go wrong and what they can both do to improve the communication between them. Another aspect that must also be incorporated into this argument is that communication is not all verbal and that non-verbal communication can be just as effective or ineffective when it comes to dealing with other medical personnel or patients. The 7% rule coined by Albert Mehrabian in his book “Silent Messages” states that “93% of communication is non-verbal, with 55% being body language and 38% being tone of voice; leaving only 7% of communication being verbal.” (“Silent Messages” Albert Mehrabian), and that ineffective or bad non-verbal communication can be just as detrimental during an interaction as verbal communication. Unfortunately, for doctors, the precision of the execution in this small 7% of communication is crucial when explaining challenging

Professional communication as defined by Crisp, Taylor, Douglas & Rebeiro, 2013, p194 includes the spoken and non-verbal forms of communication. When a nurse doesn’t communicate professionally with the patients, patients family and healthcare workers this can have an impact on the patients’ care, the nurses and the health outcomes for the patient (Robinson, F.P, 2010, p206). Unprofessional communication comes in the form of an unfriendly tone of voice, interrupting the patient when they are speaking or asking questions (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014 p66). Both of these are spoken forms of communication. Nonverbal cues are primarily about facial expressions. Interrupting and speaking

When you know your patients, you can discuss relevant information, or suggest books and articles that you think they would enjoy. For example, if you know that your patient has a child on the soccer team, ask about his or her most recent game.

“Extensive research has shown that no matter how knowledgeable a clinician might be, if he or she is not able to open good communication with the patient, he or she may be of no help” (Asnani, MR. 2009). Effective communication plays a big role in healthcare and contributes to the quality of patient care and teamwork.

There are a number of key elements that help to provide a framework that enhances truthful communication. Firstly, there is the need to develop open and honest communication from the very beginning of the patient-health professional relationship. Secondly, the health professional needs to use patient penchant as a “weigh” by asking them what they wish to know, how much they wish to know, and determining what they already know. In other words, it is a responsibility of the health professional to get a ‘feel’ for the situation, including the patients’ perception of the situation (Ashcroft, Dawson & Drape 2007).

Communication is so important in a healthcare and social care setting for a number of reasons. The patient and the healthcare professional need to understand each other clearly in order for the patient to receive the best possible

Effective communication in the healthcare setting improves recovery rates and reduces pain and complication rates. (Wilkinson et al, 2003). Many complaints to the NHS are attributed to poor communication. Effective communication is reliant on the nurse working in partnership with the patient. It is essential that the nurse establishes a rapport and most of this will be achieved through the use of facial expressions. In my practice, it is important that develop a therapeutic relationship with the patients so that they can be able to put their trust in me. The therapeutic relationship is solely to meet the needs of the patient. In this relationship, there is a rapport established from a sense of mutual understanding and trust. To build a good nurse-patient relationship, I would have to show qualities of empathy, caring, sincerity and trustworthiness. During practice, if I am approaching a patient and the patient looks anxious, I should approach with empathy.

Communication plays a vital role in the healthcare setting, as the relationship with the healthcare professional sets the tone of the care experience and has a powerful impact on patient satisfaction. It is “the shared process in which messages are sent and received between two or more people which are made up of a sender, receiver, and message in a particular context” (cite, date). This essay highlights the importance of, and some common barriers to, effective communication in the healthcare setting. It involves many interpersonal skills such as effective observation, questioning and listening, giving feedback, recognizing and removing barriers.

Communication is the most important tool to being a good health provider. This assignment analyses an interview between a student from Perth Institute of Business and Technology, who acts as a health care professional and another student who takes up the role of a patient. The areas of communication focused in this analysis are interviewing skills, listening skills and questioning skills. There are examples provided for each aspect followed by suggestions and recommendations for future practices. However, the information in this assignment is fictitious.