The Important Aspects Of Effective Nursing

Non-verbal communication is used to give us cues about what is being communicated (Underman and Boggs, 2011) and involves listening, eye contact, body language, facial expressions and movements. Posture can be open or closed reflecting a person’s emotions and attitudes (skillsyouneed, 2014). Listening can create trust, act as an advocate and build a therapeutic rapport with the patient. Barriers to listening are a noisy environment, tone of voice, timing and tiredness. Kinesics (body language) is an important non-verbal skill that involves the conscious or unconscious body positioning or actions of the communicator (Underman and Boggs, 2011). Following the SOLER guideline is useful. S- Sit squarely to the person (face them). O- Maintain an open position, L- Lean slightly forward, E- Maintain comfortable eye contact and R- Relax and take your time (Egan, 2002).

Not all patients (or staff) are comfortable with using touch but I soon realised the boundaries with each individual patient.

In order to gain an insight of what the client’s preferences are, it is essential for good communication to take place between the midwife and the woman. Communication is part of the 6C initiative lead by the NHS’ Compassion In Practice campaign to be implemented to the healthcare workforce. Communication comes in different forms: verbal, non-verbal and written. According to Professor Mehrabian (1972), non-verbal communication such as body language takes up 55% of our overall communication. By implementing certain gestures such as sitting up straight, maintaining eye contact and looking presentable leaves a lasting impression on the client. Thus it is imperative for the midwife to conduct themselves in a professional manner in order to build a good rapport with the woman.

Communication is everywhere. We, as interactive human beings, spend the majority of our time corresponding with others to satisfy our physical, identity, social, and practical needs (Adler, Rodman, & Sevigny, 2011). Often, this is consciously done; we search our minds for the accurate linguistic means to express our experiences, and use them to communicate with those around us. However, communication is not as straightforward and effortless as we may believe. It is, in fact, often unintentional, with 65% of it occurring as a result of non-verbal cues (Matsumoto, Shibata, Seiji, Mori, & Shioe, 2010). As mentioned by Marta Dynel (2011) in a study done on nonverbal communication, “Non verbal signs and signals ... are prevalent practically in

Health care providers need to be culturally competent and aware of the assumptions that their own culture makes in order to effectively provide health care services with cultural sensitivity. What we deem appropriate, may cause extreme discomfort for some and we often make these assumptions unknowingly. Effective and culturally appropriate communication is the first step in achieving equity of access to health care. Non-verbal cues such as hand gestures, eye contact, smiling and other mannerisms differ between cultures and often affect how successful your health care interaction will be. (Fanany, R. 2012, p.232)

The intercultural patient encounters are fraught with the miscommunication because different sources of communication noise. It further results in unsatisfactory interactions for the patients and the clinicians. The concept of noise in nursing involves the communication noise, which refers to the influences on effective communication that influences on the effective communication that further influences the interpretation of conversations. The communication noise can have a profound impact on the perception of interactions with other people while analyzing the proficiency of communication (Price, 1980; Schroetter & Wendler, 2008). Considering these aspects, this paper is providing the considerable understanding about the noise and communication concept in nursing.

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

Therapeutic communication is the basis to maintain a proper nurse patient relationship. Furthermore, understanding that therapeutic communication which is so vital, patient’s literacy level is also crucial in the communication process. Boykins D., 2014 states that “individuals that experience health literacy problems receive less preventative care and have poor understanding of health problems and care”. A nurse assesses each patients’ literacy level upon their first interaction, she also uses therapeutic communication to build a strong nurse patient relationship. Therapeutic communication can be verbal and nonverbal, both equally important to help build a bridge for communication. An example of nonverbal therapeutic communication would be silence; in some cultures, silence is a norm and a way of thinking. With a precise assessment and proper

In a lot of cultures touching is considered to be disrespectful and rude but in on our culture it is not a bad thing, it is etiquette. When we first meet someone, whether it is someone of the opposite sex or same sex, at a family gathering or social event they are often greeted with a hug, handshake, or a kiss on the cheek. If you walk in to a scenery of Cubans and do not greet them in any of those forms you are considered to be rude. Touching is a demonstration of affection. It is not taboo and does not carry a sexual connotation (Cuba, 2017). When someone in our culture goes to see a healthcare provider we like to be greeted by our formal name and with a handshake(Graham and Ritter, 2017). That is a respectful and professional way to approach us and makes us feel comfortable. When we feel comfortable in our environment it makes the appointment go by smoother and we are

Communication involves information being sent, received and decoded between two or more people (Balzer-Riley 2008) and involves the use of a number of communication skills; which in a nursing context generally focuses on listening and giving information to patients (Weller 2002). This process of sending and receiving messages has been described as both simple and complex (Rosengren 2000 in McCabe 2006, p.4). It is a process which is continually utilised by nurses to convey and receive information from the patient, co-workers, others they come into contact with and the patient’s family.

Non-verbal communication is defined as the aspect of communication that information is exchanged through non-verbal cues. The nurse had showed minimal respect towards Peter and had spoken at a poor tone of voice. The use of facial expressions when interacting with patients is important as it expresses respect, empathy and attention (Mast, MS. 2007). Para-verbal communication refers to messages that are said through tone, pitch, and pace; along with verbal communication, this had assisted in my approach to Peter. In many situations when interacting with patients, it is how the speech is said and not what is said as a sentence can express different meanings depending on the emphasis on the words and tone of voice (Brindley, P. G

When culturally competent nurses interact with other cultures, they observe how members of the culture communicate, watching for verbal and non-verbal cues. Eye contact is important to identify. For some cultures direct eye contact is not polite. Touch for some cultures is prohibited. If needed, nurses should explain the reason for touching the patient before proceeding. In some cultures males cannot be caregivers of females. Silence doesn’t always mean miscommunication or patient apathy. For some cultures is a positive non-verbal cue or a sign of respect or agreement. Space and distance is very important when providing care. Patients can place themselves close or far from the nurse based on their culture. Healthcare beliefs also vary from cultures. Some cultures are compliant with cares while others may not be very cooperative. Based on these observations, nurses can plan their plan of care based on the patient’s needs (Maier-Lorentz, 2008 Journal Of Cultural Diversity). Nurses also need to observe pain non-verbal cues, food preferences, family arrangements and general norms and interactions.

Effective communication through person centered care are essential for health profession, specifically in nursing care. Mueller (2016) noted that it occurs mainly through transaction modes where the patient and the nurse are on common grounds through mutual understanding. The competent communication practice of Person centered care allows the nurse to recognize patients as people and not by their illness. Moreover, person centered care satisfies patients by providing informational support to them and their families. In addition, to form a client -nurse relationship, therapeutic communication accentuates the care provider, through non-verbal, verbal and cultural norms. Lastly self-awareness allows the nurse to be aware of the patient’s

Non-verbal communication refers to the communication and interpretation of information by any means other than language. Non-verbal communication includes communication through any behavioral or expressive channel of communication such as facial expression, bodily movements, vocal tone and pitch, and many other channels. Patients are particularly sensitive to nurses’ non-verbal behaviors because they are often nervous and insecure and

This experience assisted me with implementing different communication styles that were developmentally and culturally appropriate for that intervention. With children that had a different culture, as me, I make sure to ask if there were any cultural practices that they or their family members would like the hospital to be aware of. However, most of my patients denied any cultural practice needs. With patient’s that spoke a different language, such as Spanish, the nurse and I would use a translator; whether if that was a coworker that could speak their language or a trained interpreter. We also used family members to interpret, however, had to be careful with this because some of the medical terms are hard to translate. Being aware of the patient’s development and culture, while implementing a nursing intervention is essential to building a healthy therapeutic relationship. This therapeutic relationship, will help build trust, and improve the overall healing for the patient. All in all, I loved incorporating the child’s and parent’s development and cultural needs into my nursing interventions, and will continue to implement this skill in my future