Emerging Trends and Future Directions in Patient Communication, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Communication is imperative in the field of healthcare. Lack of proper communication skills that are needed to adequately communicate with patients and their families make promoting the health and well-being of the patients difficulty. Research has been conducted that conveys that patients, family members, and health-care providers want guidelines established to ensure effective communication training is provided to nursing students. Healthcare students need to be provided with tools to assist them in being able to communicate in various situations that they may encounter in the healthcare field. Nonetheless, students and healthcare workers report that there is a deficit in the specialized communication practice they receive and the amount of communication they have to do when in the workforce. Nurses and doctors both agreed that persons in the healthcare field need specific training on how to communicate with patients and family under certain circumstances.

The Problem

There has been great debate for years about how well nursing school prepares healthcare professionals. In the early years, nurses learned the profession by apprenticeships in the field. However, later in the 1940s theoretical learning was implemented. Students were then trained in theory for several weeks before entering the healthcare field.  In the 1970s, nursing moved to the modular scheme where the courses offered theory and practical learning in the classroom setting. Today, they have moved to classroom training and infield training. However, members of the nursing class agree that very little time is devoted to communicating with patients. Although healthcare workers must have effective communication skills, very few instructional programs today focus on enhancing communication skills in the nursing students. For example, nurses need to be skilled when they have to tell patients and family members bad news or end of life conversations.  Back et al., (2007) says, “The communication skills required for these settings go beyond basic interviewing taught in medical schools; complex biomedical issues must be integrated with patient-centered values. However, educators face significant challenges in addressing this competency” (Malloy, Virani, Kelly, & Munevar, 2010). Most nursing programs only require eight contact hours for students, but this task cannot be accomplished in such a short time.

Why I Choose This Issue

I choose this issue because I have seen firsthand the effects that lack of proper communication and lack of training on how to communicate bad news and end of life conversations. In the profession, we often forget that healthcare workers are human and have feelings and emotions too. Although they deal with sickness and death each day, often it is just as difficult for them to handle it as the ordinary people who are not trained in the healthcare fields. A training model that is specifically focused on nurses communicating with patients. To implement, students should be required to speak with patients who have just received bad news from their doctors(Cegala, 2006). Also, nursing students should be required to sit in on conversations that physicians are having with patients and their families about end of life preparations. This type of training is needed because many nursing students have expressed fear of being able to adequately communicate in dire situations.

Conclusion

Teaching effective communication skills in nursing curriculum is imperative to nurses’ success. Effective communication skills cannot be taught in the classroom setting, students must be given a firsthand opportunity to handle situations that are stressful. Nursing programs need to further develop and implement programs that ensure students are adequately prepared to communicate devastating news when necessary. Once a program is implemented and students are trained, research should be conducted to determine if students feel more at ease about communicating with patients. Nursing students demonstrate adequate content knowledge, but lack of communication skills.

References

Back, A. L., Arnold, R. M., Baile, W. F., Fryer-Edwards, K. A., Alexander, S. C., Barley,

E., Tulsky, J. A. (2007). Efficacy of communication skills training for giving bad news and discussing transitions to palliative care. Archives of Internal Medicine, 167, 453-460.

Cegala, D. J. (2006). Emerging trends and future directions in patient communication skills training. Health Communication, 20, 123-129.

Malloy, P., Virani, R., Kelly, K., & Munevar, C. (2010). Beyond bad news: Communication skills of nurses in palliative care. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, 12, 166-174