Nursing Chapter 24: Communication

Communication and Nursing Practice

• Communication is a lifelong learning process that maintains effective relationships within the entire sphere of professional practice and meets legal, ethical, and clinical standards of care.
• Caring relationships are at the core of nursing, and being able to relate to others is important for interpersonal communication.
• Therapeutic communication occurs within a healing relationship between a nurse and patient.

Developing Communication Skills

• Nurses who develop critical thinking skills and clinical judgment make the best communicators.
• Critical thinking applied during patient interactions helps to overcome perceptual biases or stereotypes that interfere with accurately perceiving and interpreting messages from others.

Levels of Communication

• Intrapersonal communication
• Interpersonal communication
• Small-group communication
• Public communication
• Electronic communication

Elements of the Communication Process

• Circular transactional model
• Referent
• Sender and receiver
• Message
• Channels
• Feedback
• Interpersonal values
• Environment

Forms of Communication

• Verbal communication:
  • Vocabulary
  • Denotative and connotative meaning
  • Pacing
  • Intonation
  • Clarity and brevity
  • Timing and relevance
• Nonverbal communication:
  • Personal appearance
  • Posture and gait
  • Facial expression
  • Eye contact
  • Gestures
  • Sounds
  • Territoriality and personal space
  • Metacommunication

Professional Nursing Relationships

• Nurse-patient caring relationships
• Motivational interviewing
• Nurse-family relationships
• Nurse-health care team relationships
  • Lateral violence
• Nurse-community relationships

Elements of Professional Communication

• Courtesy
• Use of names
• Trustworthiness
• Autonomy and responsibility
• Assertiveness

Nursing Process

• Assessment:
  • Through the patient's eyes
  • Environmental factors
  • Physical and emotional factors
  • Gender
  • Developmental factors
• Analysis and nursing diagnosis
• Planning and outcomes identification:
  • Outcomes
  • Setting priorities
  • Teamwork and collaboration

Therapeutic Communication Techniques

• Active listening
• Clarifying
• Sharing observations
• Focusing
• Sharing empathy
• Paraphrasing
• Sharing hope
• Validation
• Sharing humor
• Asking relevant questions
• Summarizing
• Using touch
• Using silence
• Self-disclosure
• Confrontation
• Providing information

Nontherapeutic Communication Techniques

• Asking personal questions
• Asking for explanations
• Giving personal opinions
• Approval or disapproval
• Changing the subject
• Defensive responses
• Automatic responses
• False reassurance
• Sympathy
• Arguing

Special Communication Considerations

• Sociocultural considerations:
  • Culture influences thinking, feeling, behaving, and communicating.

This quiz covers the fundamentals of communication in nursing practice, including effective relationships, legal, ethical, and clinical aspects.