ESSAY Patient Communication

Patient Communication

Types of communication that take place between nurses and clients/patients

There are different types of communications that are applicable not only to nurses and clients but also among many hospital stakeholders. The kind of communication that is practiced among the nurses and the clients is either upward or downward, meaning the nurses deliver certain information to the clients through downward communication, or the clients express their needs to the nurses through upward communication. The other two main types of communication include the verbal and non-verbal. Verbal communication means that the message is delivered orally through the exchange of words and the feedback is provided instantly (You et al., 2013).

The nurses and the clients largely depend on verbal communication for daily interactions. The nurses will keep questioning the patients to know how they are faring while the patients will have questions that will need the attention of the nurses. Nonverbal communication is a set of communication tools that does not involve speech. The non-verbal methods include gestures and body language. Patients in the hospital often use this type of communication to express their feelings such as pain or severity of their conditions. Written communication is another type that the nurses use to communicate to the patient or vice versa. This method of communication is often used during prescription but also in other interactions. 

Formal and informal communications can also be applied within the medical setup or between the nurses and clients. Formal communication means that the nurse and the patients communicate observing the correct communication protocols of the organization while informal communication means that a nurse can talk to the patient at their personal level discussing issued that are not necessarily accounted or recorded in the normal order. In addition, interpersonal type of communication is also recognized as the tool which can link the nurses and the patients. It is usually a face to face type of communication that involves groups of people, and so it can be used for training the patients about certain issues (McQuail & Windahl, 2015). 

Factors that influence positive and negative experiences during the communication

During communication, the reaction of the parties is dependent on some issues such as emotions and the personalities of those individuals (Kirsebom, Wadensten, & Hedström, 2013). Anger, for instance, is an emotion and when the nurse or the client is angry because of something, his or her communication will stimulate negative reaction irrespective of the mood of the other person. Other people have personalities that either promote negative or positive experiences in communication. For instance, if a person is antisocial, communication with that person will have many challenges. However, if a nurse or a patient has a positive personality, they will have a natural propensity to create an exciting mood on the communication. 

Another factor could be psychographic factors of either the nurse or patient. For example, those patients or nurses who are aged are most likely to be calm and relaxed during communication. Gender may also be a factor especially when the theme of communication is centered on gender issues. The members of the same gender may find it convenient to have a positive discussion of such issue at a personal level. Negative experiences in communication are caused mainly by bad moods, negative religious beliefs or emotional reactions. 

How the client/patient experience can impact health care outcomes

Communication is an integral part of mutual coexistence. Every organization largely depends on quality communication for its success. When it comes to health issues, communication remains the backbone of success in all dimensions. The organization offering medical services always seeks to ensure positive communication experiences to the clients not only to satisfy them but also to ensure that their services are of the best quality. When the patient experience is good, there will be a good reputation of both the hospital and caregivers. Regular surveys are conducted, which give patients an opportunity to give their feedback on the quality of services and so their experiences are directly proportion to the feedback they will give.

Client experiences also stimulate the healing process of the patients. Also, the patients can learn many things through quality communication by the caregivers who will ensure that the prevention of certain diseases will be boosted tremendously. One of the best ways to promote health is by using all the necessary stakes such as the caregivers, the community, and the patients. This is achieved when the communication systems between the organization and these stakes are maintained at a good level.  The patient’s experiences particularly count in the rating of the quality of the healthcare services offered by the organization.

Evidence-based strategies for improving communication between client/patients and nurses

Several writers and researchers have proposed ways that can be used to improve communication between the patients and the nurses. The nurses should learn as an organizational requirement to handle the patients in a particular way (Kourkouta, & Papathanasiou, 2014).  This is important for the nurses given that they will have to handle a wide diversity of patients having different cultures and religions (McQuail & Windahl, 2015). When the nurses learn how to handle this kind of diversity, they will improve the overall communication experience within the hospital.

The patients want to be treated with respect and care, and therefore the nurses must always seek to satisfy patients’ needs even those that are beyond the treatment. When patients are satisfied, they will not raise any negative feeling which might provoke negative communication. Information that is distributed between the nurses and the patients should be treated with attention, especially by the nurses (McQuail & Windahl, 2015). The wrong response to certain pieces of information can spark conflicts which could be avoided. Therefore, information should be recorded where applicable for quality purposes.

How the strategies consider different client/patient demographics

Taking the first strategy as training the nurses to handle the diversity of the patients without bias, we can include demographic differences of the clients such as religious faith, social status and so on. In this case, the nurses should learn how to treat each group equally or without using terms that may humiliate patients. For instance, if the patient is from a religion that prohibits him or her from eating certain food, the nurse should learn to deal with that gently without using force or creativity to convince the patient otherwise. Another example is a nurse subjecting a patient of lower social class into things that are beyond his or her financial capability. Such patients may feel humiliated. When the nurse adjust style of communication to satisfy the different clients, there will generally be an improvement of communication experience between the nurses and the patients.