Critical Evaluation Of Communication Process Expert’s Answer
Introduction to communication process and importance of effective communication
Effective communication is the basic key element on which foundation of any workplace stands upon. Without devising an effective communication strategy, the employer and the employees cannot provide quality services to the customers. Specially in nursing practice, the entire framework of quality diagnosis and treatment depends upon how effective the communication is, primarily between the patients and nurses and secondarily between the hospital staff i.e., among nurses and doctors and other health professionals. Nurses are the backbone of any strong healthcare system and the daily interactions with patients from all sorts of educational, social, and cultural background makes clear communication a pre-requisite for effective nursing practice (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014).
Since communication is the exchange of information, opinions, and thoughts among different people by using different means, in therapeutics public health staff and nurses used to be on one side and patient and his people on the other side. So in this way communication is a tow way process. Patient expresses his concerns and problems to the nurses to help them to make a better nursing diagnosis for the patient. In return nurses take the information by taking the patient in confidence and advice the patient with discretion about the type of disease he is suffering from and a health plan to be followed to go towards the treatment (Papagiannis, 2010). Effective communication requires the skills and the experience of the nurses, how they understand the concerns of the patients. Only listening to the patient is not enough, an important part here is how nurses convey that concern or message of the patient to the doctor or use it to make a better diagnostic and treatment plan (Papadantonaki, 2006).
To run a better health workplace, nurses and all the health officials must learn effective communication skills with their education. These lessons are used throughout their nursing life on their workplace (Wikström, 2011). Communication process in general is a cyclic process in which anything that a speaker says or inquiries about, would result in a response from the listener either in the form of verbal or non-verbal cues and subsequently this response would stimulate the speaker to further carry out the conversation in an attempt to develop an understanding of the situation at hand.
Basic cycle of communication
Communication process selected and use in healthcare
For the proper functioning of any healthcare system, the choice of communication process which would be utilized in the workplace should be made carefully. There are three basic models of communication process, namely linear model, interactional model, and transactional model of communication (Sibiya, 2018). Interactive model of communication states that the message given by speaker to the listener evokes a reaction in the listener which is then evaluated by the speaker in the light of their expertise to further carry out a fruitful conversation. Most healthcare workplaces rely on interactive model of communication as this is very potent for obtaining a clear clinical history of the patient which is further used by the doctors to prescribe an effective treatment.
Interactive Process of Communication
To communicate in more dynamic view, interactive communication process is more effective than others. It is an ongoing process following by two channels. Information flows between sender and recipient. A message is conveyed by the sender and recipient listens to the message and gives his feedback to the sender. Feedback can be verbal or nonverbal. An important factor involved in interaction process is the field of experience of both sender and recipient. Both message and feedback depend upon field of experience of sender and recipient, how sender constructs a message by his expertise, mindset, and experience and how recipient perceives that message (Schiavo, 2013). Lack of effective communication on my nursing place is a major issue. Interference while communicating on both sender and recipient side acts as a barrier. Such barriers in communication process could be disastrous as vague communication between the nursing staff and the patients would not only lead to false treatment options but in the long run also contribute to mistrust on the health care staff (Riley, 2015; Brodish, 1982). In real life especially on a nursing workplace, interaction is not that easy, it can be more complicated but still might be effective process of communication. By opting such processes in real time in effective ways, communication can be improved on my nursing workplace.
My workplace communication model and flaws in the model followed
My observation of my workplace mode of communication has revealed that like all other healthcare workplaces it also follows the interactional process of communication but a closer critical inspection of this model in real-time revealed numerous flaws in my workplace environment which are restricting the correct implementation of this communication process. The major barrier being the intensive workload on nurses and the setting in which the healthcare is provided (Sheldon, Barrett, & Ellington, 2006). A patient should be comfortable with the nurse to share his clinical history. The patient must have trust on the competency of the nurse that he is interacting with. A major barrier to building this trust and comfort environment for patient is the shortage of time and intensive workload on nurses. High workload on nurses can make them prone to emotional stress and hence they would be able to focus completely on the patient he is interacting with and this can lead to problems in understanding the chief complaints shared by the patient. Moreover the patient might also feel themselves as a burden to the nurse as the body language of nurses is also affected by long hours of duty and intense workload. The shortage of time due to high workload can also lead to collection of incomplete clinical history which could lead to missing out of some important clinical information required to make an effective diagnosis. The clinical setting in which the patient-nurse communication is taking place should be noise-free and should not be crowded with other patients or hospital staff members as this would hinder collection of personal information with high confidentiality and this would make patient uncomfortable and resistant in sharing his/her personal clinical history clearly (Sheldon et al., 2006; Sibiya, 2018). Another major challenge to effective communication is the emotions of the family members of the patients. These emotions could serve as a hurdle in the way of the nurse doing her best to provide quality care to the patient. In many cases, the thought process of the patient is deeply affected by the illness and this creates anxiety and frustration in the patient and inhibits an effective conversation with the nurse, in turn the nurse also feels the emotional stress. This stress added with the intensive workload can severely affect the mental health of the nursing staff (Sheldon et al., 2006).
A literature search to find out the best practice for the communication process of my workplace
To practice interactional communication process in real time, few things are needed to be implemented. While communicating to patient time and place are important factors to be considered so make sure that you have enough time for the patient to speak and for your feedback as well. Make the patient’s surrounding noise free before having a communication (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014).
On a nursing workplace, a nurse should be equipped with effective communication skills. While listening to the patients, nurse should be attentive enough and should not interrupt the patient. When patient expresses his concerns, a nurse should show empathy and concern. When patient is conveying his message, nursing staff should be focused and should not force the patients to answer the questions when he is anxious or worried. By opting the interaction process of communication, nurse should be a good listener, even when the patient is not clear enough with his issues. Due to disease, a patient might be upset already and cannot explain much. Nurses can offer factual information when patient expresses his thoughts rather than personal opinion. When message by the patient is not clear enough, ask patient to clarify so that right message can be perceived to make better diagnosis. Since field of experience is an important factor in interactional process, being a member of medical staff a nurse should that she is convinced. Since noise or interruption is the main barrier on my workplace, while talking to patient regarding his important medical history, it should be tried that there are no distractions around (Sibiya, 2018).
After listening to patient carefully, while giving feedback a nurse should be respectful and keep in mind the concerns of patient. Make sure that patient is attentive towards the nurse while taking feedback. If patient’s disease condition is not good, use courteous words. Explain to patient what the next medical plan is, and do not give orders to the patient. While explaining medical terms, use understandable phrases because most of the patients do not know about the medical terms. Explain facts to the patient, try not to cover them so that patient has the idea of his medical condition (Sibiya, 2018).
Comparison of best communication process from literature with the flaws of my workplace’s communication process
The exchange of concerns, information and thoughts has its prime importance in therapeutic relationship in medical care. Best communication process involves the assessment of patient by identifying his problems. Suitable time and place are decided for an effective communication with the patient to understand the concerns of the patient better. While at my nursing workplace heavy workload, lack of time and duty setting are the communication barriers. To make better diagnosis of the patient, nurses need to discuss the problems of the patient carefully so that they can be discussed with the physicians for solution. Alternative ways of tackling the problems of the patients are found out and solution is directly discussed with the patient. While in our work setting, duties are assigned in a way that detailed sessions are not taken with the patients and solution plans are made as per unclear information collected by the patient. To get better understanding of the medical history and events of the patient, informal conversation is used in effective communication process. Bossy language is not used while discussion with patient. Solutions and the problems are discussed with the patients not for the patients. Facts are uncovered in an informal conversation with the patient. While in real time due to work stress and a greater number of patients assigned to a single nurse causes the changes in nurse’s behavior and her behavior does not seem empathic to the patient. In ideal situation empathic behavior of patient makes patient feel at home and he tries to opt the instructions well and go towards the recovery soon. An experienced nurse who is well equipped with the necessary communication skills enter in patient’s shoes and understand the patient’s medical events and supports him emotionally. In our workplace due to distractions and extra responsibilities on nurses, patient finds himself a burden on the nurse and does not express his issues that well. Due to lack of emotional support patients loses his moral and does not go towards recovery as soon as he should go (Ellington et al., 2006; Sibiya, 2018).
Ways to improve the existing flaws of my workplace’s communication process
The communication between patients and nurses is one of the most crucial factors that influences the patient’s satisfaction towards the nursing care quality. Unsatisfactory nursing care quality in real time nursing workplace can be copped by the nurses by opting some effective strategies. Nurses should be content while having a conversation with the patient. This can be done by showing empathy to the patient. The nurse must try to get the confidence of the patient by maintaining low profile at the start of the conversation. By taking forward the conversation, gradually directive language should be used. Patient might be of different age, gender, religion, occupation, and culture. These differences prove to be a barrier in communication, but it can be surpassed. Nurse needs to fully understand these differences and try to accept. In such way trust and confidence of the patient can be achieved and patient may be willing to talk about his detailed medical events.
When patient does not find nurse’s behavior kind, he does not talk about his medical condition. To cope with this issue, a nurse can go to the level of understanding of the patient. Rather than using strict medical terms, a nurse can use understandable language to discuss the patient’s problems. Medical terms can frighten the patient and he might be panic. In such condition patient may convey wrong or unclear information which may lead to the false diagnosis. To take patient in confidence, a nurse can share a bit about the disease first the patient is suffering from. Nurse can clear the aims of the discussion so that patient can participate in this discussion well. While talking, to understand the patient nurse can encourage the patient to not only talk about facts but about his feeling as well. Before giving her feedback, a nurse must listen the concerns of the patient carefully. When the nurse has complete knowledge of the patient’s situation and communicated well, she can try to solve the issues of the patient and proceed to the intervention.
Sometimes on our workplace, patient does not perceive the nurse’s instruction right and not follow them. This also can be a barrier in nurse-patient communication. To validate whether the patient has followed the instruction, it can be asked whether your interpretations are clear to the patient or not. Nurse should try to remove misunderstandings from the discussion by checking from the patient whether he is getting true instructions or not. Also by avoiding distractions and active listening an effective interaction can be developed between patient and nurse (Hariyati et al., 2018; Sibiya, 2018).
Conclusion
Good communication with the patient is an important part in the field of medicine. It is not only based on innate behavior but necessary training and expertise. In order to improve communication between patients and nurses, there is a need of interpersonal climate to be developed with sick patients. Best training, education and expertise regarding effective communication can enable the nurses to respond effectively and humanely to the expectations of the patients (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014).
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References
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