Enhancing Communication and Patient Care

Introduction

This reflective essay is used to demonstrate a critical analysis for adult nursing. The main focus if based on activities such as patient safeguarding, patient fall, handover, communication, documentations and dressing of the wounds being a student nurse. The analysis is in a healthcare setting where I was involved with nursing of the adults. I order to make a critical analysis of adult nursing; this essay will apply the John Gibbs’ reflective cycle so as to focus on effective communication when practicing adult nursing and my experience at my placement facility.

Effective communication during adult nursing

Nurses play a vital role in the implementation of important clinical facilities and in the overall improvement of the health-care framework. They put people-centred treatment closer to the areas where it is desperately important, thus improving patient quality and total program cost-effectiveness. Nurses serve as first responders of complex humanitarian emergencies and incidents, as neighbourhood protectors and activists, and as communicators and team co-coordinators. Communication skills are important for nurses, but they may be challenging to learn.

Communication is the sharing of knowledge between individuals, whether through shouting, writing, or using some other means. Clear contact ensures that knowledge is easily communicated between individuals. Great communication skills are expected to be a competent nurse. The nurses must communicate with people from diverse social, cultural and educational backgrounds in a professional compassionate and efficient, manner, particularly while interacting with patients and their families. Health conditions are influenced by the amount of interaction between nurses and patients. This effect may have a significant impact on patient welfare, schooling, and adherence.

Good connectivity is critical to the efficient operation of the enterprise. As a result, a nurse would always strive to develop his or her communication abilities. Bad communication may be hazardous and cause misunderstanding. Furthermore, good nurses are able to communicate effectively with their patients, allowing them to feel more secure about their lives as well as more receptive about what they might be going through as a means for quick healing. Communication in nursing is directly linked to patient recovery rate and recovery, which also includes a scientific component of learning. As a result, this article would draw on my experience at my adult nursing placement, where I saw, an uncouth patient being spoken to.

Step 1: Description

In my clinical placement, a nurse was tending to the wound of a particular patient who was elderly and seemed to be in a lot of pain. The patient was giving the nurse a hard time when being tended to as she seemed to be in excruciating pain. She had hurt her uncle while doing her house chores and she had sustained a cut. This was according to the description of what happened. While the nurse was tending to her would, the patient was trying to pull back her foot as a reaction to the pain but then the nurse seems to have gotten weary to the patient’s incessant behaviour of wanting to pull back her foot. The nurse raised her voice and shouted as she was telling her to stop pulling back her foot. After hearing what the nurse had said, the patient got utterly shocked and started crying pleading that she was in so much pain. This was a very unpleasant experience for me and I could feel the pain and hurt the patient went through knowing very well that she did not deserve the treatment.

Step 2: Feelings and thoughts

Before this experience, I was really enjoying my time at the placement while helping and watching as the other nurses were dressing wounds and treating the patients. I had been able to create very good working relationships with my fellow student nurses and the nurses as well. I was also getting along well with the patients I had the opportunity of attending to. However, after watching the horrifying experience, my heart sunk. I felt very disappointed and wished that I did not witness such a disappointing scenario. I felt the embarrassment of looking at the patient who looked at me knowing very well that I also knew that she was not treated in the right manner. The communication was bad, uncouth and uncalled for. This questioned for the kind of leadership and communication skills that the nurses at the clinic had. According to (Bartlett, 2008), there are adverse effects of poor communication. This was therefore promoting the disappointment I felt for the medical error I witnessed. I felt scared, disappointed, worried and overwhelmed with the feeling of calling out the nurse who was a permanent medical practitioner at the clinic.

It was very clear that the nurses at the clinic were overworking and depressed as well since the clinic already had guidelines and rules that advised against such behaviour by employees. I thought the patient would panic and go on frenzy after the treatment. I also thought that she would report and sue the clinic which would tarnish the name of the clinic and possible financial loss. However, after a month, the incidence taught the whole working fraternity at the clinic that effective communication s vital when dealing with aged patients who are very vulnerable and more so, every patient at a clinic. Such mistakes can be avoided by using effective communication skills.

Step 3: Evaluation

According to (Van, 2016), Nurses must provide good listening abilities and tactics. Knowledge is easily communicated by the nurse, customers, family members, and friends because there is clear contact. However, it is acknowledged that those abilities are not necessarily apparent, and that nurses cannot always interact well with patients, family members, and co-workers. It's possible that the message submitted was not the same as the message received. The literal sense of a message, as well as the nonverbal signs that surround it and the form in which it is presented, both influence its meaning. As a result, it is simple to misunderstand or accurately interpret the message; however, deciding not to follow its secret purpose obstructs contact.

Relationships gradually deteriorate as a result of persistent obstacles to successful contact. After an apology from the nurse who was attending to the patient, the patient calmed down and eventually the assessment of the wound and the required treatment went on as required. According to (Helft, 2011), nurses are unable to properly answer their patients' needs because of elevated workload and time limitations. Nurses operate in fast-paced environments where they must perform a certain volume of work in a given amount of time and collaborate with a number of other staff, patients, and their families. The tasks are difficult, demanding, and exhausting. At the occurrence, there was ineffective communication on the side of the nurse which can be erased by using effective communication.

However, it was an advantage to have experience such an occurrence because I was able to develop more important approaches to effective communication. I was able to study more on the vital importance of proper communication especially when dealing with a patient as an aspiring and training future nurse. There was a lot of miscommunication at the event which made me feel so tensed but I was finally able to overcome it in the end. This could have caused poor outcomes for the patient who was an elderly lady which made the patient feel humiliated and unsafe at the clinic. However, we were able to address the issue as a whole team at the clinic. We were also able to make the patient feel comfortable and safe again.

Step 4: Analysis

So as to manage the situation in an effective manner, the team enhanced the use of respectful words, use of techniques such as speaking courteously and clearly, us of normal and pleasant tone, use of appropriate body language as well as use of non-threatening words. Regardless of some members feeling as though they were being made to repeat the same thing they went through in school; the sensitization was very successful and of great importance to all of us. There was a great engagement from all the members of the group. We were successful in making sure that the patient was reassured of her safety and concern for her well-being at the clinic. According to (Tiwary, 2019), failure to communicate effectively may result in life-threatening complications. Proper communication preparation for health care workers, particularly nurses, is essential for improved communication practice.

By use of effective communication strategies, all the objectives, goals and mission of the clinic could be achieved. It would also help in engaging all the practitioners of the clinic and also make sure that all the medical practitioners at the clinic could have improved communication skills. If this would not have happened, I would have taken it upon myself to emphasize among all my peers the need for proper and authentic skill of communication between the clients and all the practitioners. I would also have apologized to the client and assured her that the other nurse might have been going through some issues as a way of making her feel that the situation was not exactly intended to happen. It is my responsibility to be an example to my fellow colleagues towards effective communication and proper treatment of the clients.

According to ("Role of Communication in Nursing", 2021), nurse-patient communication that is clear and concise promotes and strengthens support, trust and mutual understanding, in the nurse-patient relationship. The nurses should also interact with patients to understand and address the concerns of the patient's negative emotions, because positive contact increases the level of treatment, which serves as a catalytic impact. The psychological stress ratios for patients pre and post contact therapy were 99.14 percent and 21.57 percent, respectively. There was direct coordination between the therapies and patients who had negative emotional effects in that condition. Further tests have shown that: capable and knowledgeable medical personnel can be questioned about the background of the test details 82 percent, 9 percent from the physical inspection, and 9 percent from the laboratory findings. The findings of the study indicate that improving health-care communication skills is critical, since it allows health-care professionals to access knowledge and a full medical profile of patients through the usage of adequate communication skills. They provide the ability to provide reliable medical background records, which is crucial for accurate disease detection.

I have carried with me very important lessons from my short time at the placement. I also realized that proper communication is important to be able to perform as a team. Reaching the organizational goals and mission is also dependent on how the medical practitioners treat their clients where proper communication is an integral characteristic. I have fund that it is very important for me to always be aware of the requirements for being an ethical and efficient nurse. From tis reflection, I have learned the vital importance of having all the required skills to be effective at one’s place of work as a medical practitioner. I have realized that my decision-making abilities determine the outcomes for my patients. I have realized that having strong work communication skills is actually an advantage as there will never be such cases of medical error or even possible worse results. In the future I will be able to apply proper and ideal communication skills as a nurse so as to be able to prevent medical errors with my patients.

Conclusion and Action Plan

Because of the essence of the job atmosphere, fostering effective communication in medical care is stressful and difficult. Nurses that have undergone behavioural skills instruction interact better and with more trust with patients. However, nurses who have the ability to serve in other countries must first build communication skills, cultural understanding, and empathy. Therefore, in the future, I will do the following;

• As a leader, establishing policies to avoid hospital mistakes.

• Keep track of the patient's medical history as well as the medications he or she is taking.

• Encourage team participants to come to an agreement.

• Encourage democratic, well-structured leadership.

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References

Bartlett, G., Blais, R., Tamblyn, R., Clermont, R. J., & MacGibbon, B. (2008). Impact of patient communication problems on the risk of preventable adverse events in acute care settings. CMAJ, 178(12), 1555-1562.

Tiwary, A., Rimal, A., Paudyal, B., Sigdel, K. R., & Basnyat, B. (2019). Poor communication by health care professionals may lead to life-threatening complications: examples from two case reports. Welcome open research, 4.

Van Niekerk, V. (2016). Relationship, helping and communication skills. Foundations of Nursing Practice: Fundamentals of Holistic Care. African Edition. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Mosby Elsevier, 181-207.

Helft, P. R., Chamness, A., & Terry, C. (2011, July). Oncology nurses' attitudes toward prognosis-related communication: A pilot mailed survey of oncology nursing society members. In Oncology nursing forum (Vol. 38, No. 4, p. 468). Oncology Nursing Society.

Role of Communication in Nursing (2021). Retrieved 27 April 2021, from https://nursinganswers.net/essays/communication-between-the-nurse-the-patient-and-family-nursing-essay.