Communication

How can a nurse develop a caring relationship of trust?

Be sensitive to self and others, acceptance and promote, instilling faith and hope

How can a nurse ensure correct transmission/reception of message?

By promoting interpersonal teaching and learning and to be their patient’s #1 advocate

How can nurses enhance patient safety?

Provide supportive environment and assist with gratification of human needs

How can nurses use therapeutic communication?

Remove biases and allow the patient to express their spiritual beliefs

What are different levels of communication?

Intrapersonal (self-talk), interpersonal (face to face or verbal/non-verbal), small group communication (output oriented), public communication, electronic communication (telehealth, be careful with confidentiality)

What are some interpersonal variables that influence communication?

Physical health factors, language, social cultural background, perception of values and beliefs, relationships, gender, education level, developmental factors, age, expectations, past experiences

How can communication be improved with a patient?

Get down to the patients eye level and use simple verbiage that they can understand

What is verbal communication?

Appropriate tone for person, show interested (no texting or chewing gum), speak clearly, use vocab that is understood, waiting your turn, kept to the point

What is non-verbal communication?

Unconsciously motivated and more accurate that uses all five senses

What is metacommunication?

Verifies congruency with verbal and non verbal communication, further follow up is required when they don’t match up

What is self-awareness of effected therapeutic communication?

The process of understanding one’s own beliefs, thoughts, motivations, biases, and limitations and how they influence one’s behavior

What is knowledge of effective therapeutic communication?

Communication skills and underlying theory

What are therapeutic relationships?

A series of planned and purposeful interactions between the helping professional and a client in which both participants change, development of increased interpersonal competencies and meaning emerges

What are good ways to promote therapeutic relationships?

Focus on patient’s issues, concerns, and needs

Collaborative goal-setting and problem-solving for the patient, the family/support system, and health care team

What is the goal of therapeutic communication?

To understand and be understood

What is a nurse’s role in therapeutic relationships?

A participant observer rather than a spectator observer that enhances client growth

What are responsive dimensions of therapeutic communication?

Genuineness, respect, empathy, concreteness

What is responsive dimensions?

Validating feelings and rephrase to show understanding

What are action dimensions in therapeutic communication?

Confrontation and immediacy/timing

How is silence a therapeutic communication technique?

It lets the patient think and organize their thoughts

What are obstructive techniques?

Reassurance, agreeing, judgement, giving advice/solutions, moralizing, lecturing, minimizing, changing the subject, interrupting

What does it mean to blur boundaries?

Relationship slips into a social context and the nurse’s behavior meets the personal needs at the expense of the client (overinvolvement, overhelping, rescuing, controlling, anger, underhelping, or helplessness)

What are the four phases of the helping relationship?

Preinteraction, orientation, working, and termination

What is the preinteraction phase of a helping relationship?

Planning and preparing

What is the orientation phase of a helping relationship?

Build trust, set parameters of relationship, confidentiality, contract, termination

What is the working phase of a helping relationship?

Maintaining the relationship, gathering more data, promoting client problem-solving skills, self-esteem and communication, facilitating behavioral change, overcoming resistance behaviors, evaluating problems and goals so you can redefine as needed, practicing alternative adaptive behaviors

What is the termination stage of a helping relationship?

Dealing with feelings regarding termination experience, summarizing progress and goals achieved, identifying areas that still need work, referring someone if needed, educating the client, finalizing termination

How can you evaluate effectiveness of therapeutic communication?

Assess each interaction, take practice and continuous evaluation, ask questions to yourself (was that interaction appropriate for the goal of care, if there was enough communication and feedback to meet the goals, was communication effective, and was the interaction flexible enough to allow for balance between spontaneity and control)

What are the 7 therapeutic techniques?

Be attentive, ask open-ended questions, ask probing questions, request clarification, paraphrase, be attuned to and reflect feelings, summarize