Competency
Explain effective oral professional communication skills in the context of nursing.
Scenario
As part of new employee training, you must watch videos of nurses communicating in three contexts: nurse to the client, intraprofessional, and interprofessional. For each type of communication viewed, you must prepare a written response explaining the effective and ineffective oral professional communication skills observed and suggestions for what you would do differently in the same situation to facilitate effective communication. Here are the videos that you must watch:
Nurse to the Client: Opioid Withdrawal
Intraprofessional: Managing Incivility
Instructions
- Submit a document that includes:
- A description of ineffective and effective communication techniques observed in the video of a nurse-to-client interaction including
- recommendations for different strategies to promote more effective communication
- new knowledge gained
- impact of new knowledge on nursing practice
- ideas supported with examples and credible sources
- A description of ineffective and effective communication techniques observed in the video of an intraprofessional interaction including:
- recommendations for different strategies to promote more effective communication
- new knowledge gained
- impact of new knowledge on nursing practice
- ideas supported with examples and credible sources
- A description of ineffective and effective communication techniques observed in the video of an interprofessional interaction including:
- recommendations for different strategies to promote more effective communication
- new knowledge gained
- impact of new knowledge on nursing practice
- ideas supported with examples and credible sources
- A use of professional language and attribution for credible sources with correct APA citation, spelling, and grammar in the document.
Rubric
Accurate description of ineffective and effective communication techniques observed in a video of nurse to client interaction including: Recommendations for different strategies to promote more effective communication, new knowledge gained, impact of new knowledge gained on nursing practice
Exemplary description of ineffective and effective communication techniques observed in intraprofessional interaction including: recommendations for different strategies to promote more effective communication, new knowledge gained, impact of new knowledge on nursing practice
Exemplary description of ineffective and effective communication techniques observed in interprofessional interaction
Communication is professional, well-constructed, succinct and contains comprehensive detail
Strategies for Effective Oral Communication
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Strategies for Effective Oral Communication
Effective communication greatly affects relationships between healthcare providers and patients, among nurses themselves, and among members of interprofessional teams. Nurse practitioners often engage in communication when they are interacting with their patients, their colleagues, and professionals from other industries (Simonovich et al., 2021). While written communication has widely been used in nursing practice, oral communication is widely employed in healthcare settings when patients and professionals interact. It is important to note that the success of oral communication largely depends on the strategies employed by the incumbents (Mata et al., 2021). The purpose of this assignment is to explain the effective and ineffective oral professional communication skills observed in three different videos. The paper will also give suggestions for what you would do differently in the same situation to facilitate effective communication.
Nurse-to-Client Interaction: Opioid Withdrawal
Ineffective approaches to communication and effective communication strategies have an influence on the outcomes of a nurse-to-client interaction. The strategies employed in the video of a nurse-to-client interaction have had some effects on the observed outcomes. An example of an ineffective communication technique observed in the video is patient labeling. The patient in the video has opioid withdrawal. During a change-of-shift handoff, the male nurse labels the patient as a drug seeker who ‘will eat’ all of the nurse’s time. The nurse indicates that labeling the patient can be unproductive as it can affect the nurse-to-patient therapeutic relationship. However, a number of effective communication techniques are evident in the nurse-to-client interaction video. These approaches include; the nurse’s demonstration of empathy and compassion when gathering information from the patient related to her healthcare needs. Another technique is the use of polite language when encouraging the patient and when educating her about her condition.
Certain strategies can promote more effective communication among the healthcare professionals reflected in the video. The most appropriate strategy to implement is to educate the healthcare professionals on how to avoid patient labeling and the actions that they can take to enhance nurse-to-patient relationships (Kwame & Petrucka, 2021). Avoiding patient labeling will ensure productive communication that will enhance the achievement of positive patient outcomes.
The video presents new knowledge that has a positive impact on nursing practice. An important lesson learned from the video is that patient labeling has negative impacts on nurse-to-patient relationships. According to Milbrath (2019), labeling patients as drug seekers prevents healthcare professionals from accurately establishing the degree of pain that a patient is experiencing. This knowledge affects nursing practice in that it guides nurses to avoid labeling their patients instead, they should communicate with them effectively to identify their health needs.
Intraprofessional Interaction: Managing Incivility
When novice nurses join a healthcare organization, their main wish is that they will get the support that they need from senior nurses to comfortably perform their duties. However, incivility in the workplace might prevent these nurses from performing their roles effectively as desired (Kanitha & Naik, 2021). An ineffective communication technique observed in the video of an intraprofessional interaction is a senior nurse making negative sentiments about a junior nurse who has asked for assistance regarding how to handle a patient’s case. The senior goes ahead to state how inexperienced the new nurses are in the presence of the nurse and a client’s family member. Such negative sentiments can negatively affect the nurses’ performance and patient outcomes. As Kanitha and Naik (2021) explain, workplace incivility affects both the physical and psychological performance of nurses, a factor that prevents them from accomplishing their roles effectively. A different strategy to promote more effective communication is for the senior nurse to stop the phone call and listen to the concerns presented by the junior nurse (Kanitha & Naik, 2021). Despite the ineffective communication observed, a number of effective approaches to communication have been observed in the video. These include the nurse conducting the change-of-shift handoff clearly explaining a patient’s information to the junior nurse, the junior nurse politely requesting a private talk with the senior nurse, and the senior nurse apologizing to the junior nurse for the negative sentiments made earlier in the day.
Nurses can use the new knowledge acquired from the video to improve nursing practice. The new knowledge presented by the video is that senior nurses should be ready to listen to the requests and needs of junior nurses and offer assistance where necessary. Besides, they should refrain from making negative sentiments about novice nurses (Kanitha & Naik, 2021). This new knowledge has a positive impact on nursing practice in that it guides senior nurses to utilize communication strategies that will enable them to eliminate workplace incivility and accommodate junior nurses.
Interprofessional Interaction: Sepsis
Doctors with different specializations cooperate with nurses from different specialties to help patients to recover from their illnesses. These professionals must communicate effectively in order to meet healthcare goals (Velásquez et al., 2022). An ineffective communication technique observed in the video of an interprofessional interaction is planning to discharge a patient without consulting all the professionals involved in his care. As reported in the video, a plan to discharge the patient is underway yet the patient still has symptoms that might prevent his recovery at home. The patient is suffering from sepsis, a condition that can best be diagnosed by a doctor who specializes in sepsis treatment. A different strategy to promote a more effective communication in the scenario is to involve the doctors and nurses involved in the patient’s care in decision-making when planning a discharge for him (Velásquez et al., 2022). Implementing s
An important knowledge acquired from the video is the important need to involve interprofessional teams in decision-making regarding a patient’s health at all stages of care. Sillero and Buil (2021) recommend that interprofessional collaboration is highly necessary for patient care as it ensures that the expectations of all team members are met. This new knowledge impacts nursing practice as it influences doctors and nurses to involve all members of interprofessional teams when making a decision about patient care.
Conclusion
Oral communication is an effective way to exchange information in the context of nursing. It can be used during nurse-to-patient interaction, intraprofessional interaction, and interprofessional interaction. An example of an ineffective communication technique observed in the nurse-to-client interaction video is the labeling of a patient with opioid withdrawal. The intraprofessional interaction video showed evidence of incivility displaced by a senior nurse toward a junior nurse. In the interprofessional interaction video, there is a lack of interprofessional consultation before arriving at a decision to discharge a patient with sepsis. Based on the contents of the videos, today’s nurses should avoid labeling their patients instead, they should communicate with them effectively to identify their health needs. Besides, senior nurses should avoid making incivility sentiments toward junior nurses. Again, doctors and nurses should involve all members of interprofessional teams when making a decision about patient care.
References
Kanitha, D., & Naik, P. R. (2021). Experience of workplace incivility and its impact on stress and turnover intention among the nurses working at a hospital: cross-sectional survey approach. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 26(3), 285–287. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijnmr.IJNMR_124_20
Kwame, A., & Petrucka, P. M. (2021). A literature-based study of patient-centered care and communication in nurse-patient interactions: barriers, facilitators, and the way forward. BMC Nursing, 20(1), 158. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00684-2
Mata, Á., de Azevedo, K., Braga, L. P., de Medeiros, G., de Oliveira Segundo, V. H., Bezerra, I., Pimenta, I., Nicolás, I. M., & Piuvezam, G. (2021). Training in communication skills for self-efficacy of health professionals: a systematic review. Human Resources for Health, 19(1), 30. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-021-00574-3
Milbrath, G. (2019). Labeling patients. In: Martin, M., Heron, S., Moreno-Walton, L., Strickland, M. (eds) Diversity and Inclusion in Quality Patient Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92762-6_28
Sillero, S., A., & Buil, N. (2021). Enhancing interprofessional collaboration in perioperative setting from the qualitative perspectives of physicians and nurses. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(20), 10775. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182010775
Simonovich, S. D., Spurlark, R. S., Badowski, D., Krawczyk, S., Soco, C., Ponder, T. N., Rhyner, D., Waid, R., Aquino, E., Lattner, C., Wiesemann, L. M., Webber-Ritchey, K., Li, S., & Tariman, J. D. (2021). Examining effective communication in nursing practice during COVID-19: A large-scale qualitative study. International Nursing Review, 68(4), 512–523. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12690
Velásquez, S. T., Ferguson, D., Lemke, K. C., Bland, L., Ajtai, R., Amezaga, B., Cleveland, J., Ford, L. A., Lopez, E., Richardson, W., Saenz, D., & Zorek, J. A. (2022). Interprofessional communication in medical simulation: findings from a scoping review and implications for academic medicine. BMC medical education, 22(1), 204. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-022-03226-9