The Importance of Good Communication Skill, Essay Example

Communication skills are vital for workers in many fields and especially in a health care setting. Therapeutic communication between nurses and patients builds a trusting relationship and leads to effective delivery of health care to the patient. Effective skills of communication are essentially vital to facilitate building as well as maintenance of a cohesive relationship between a nurse in a health care setting to the patients and their relatives. The contribution of good communication is demonstrated by an understanding of the parties which in turn facilitates for development of alternative perspectives and addressing the needs of the patients as well as the nurses.

Nurses in a health care setting have the duty to learn the language that is unique to their profession and it is applied routinely in their place of work. Effective communication facilitates for overcoming of potential barriers that hinder achievement of the actual goal behind communication and a situation of mutual understanding. The common barriers include prejudice, the hidden agendas, defensiveness, stress as well as emotions. For a nurse to perform to full potential, it is imperative that appropriate attention is accorded to acquisition of appropriate skills of communication so as to sustain acceptability in the health care setting (Fischman, 2006, 92).

Communication is an important as well as an essential component in health care environment. The nurses play the role of intermediaries between the patients to the nurses and also between the patients to their families. They are therefore expected to have the potentials of building strong communication skills. The skills of communication should be manifested in both verbal as well as non-verbal forms of communication.

Nurses are therefore required to positively acknowledge the needs, emotions as well as the concerns of the patients which may be expressed verbally or even non-verbally. Not all the patients are vocal with respect to their feelings and needs and consequently, a variety of communication techniques are applicable to point out at their needs which nurses should have the skills and knowledge to understand.

The effectiveness of health care facility in care provision is governed by their efforts in bridging the barriers between culture and language. Communication errors are inevitable for the nurses who are inadequately trained to interact with the patients which consequently leads to major problems of communication among the nurses, the patients as well as their families (Fischman, 2006, 88, 90, 92).

Nurses have the first priority of interaction with the patients and this requires that their listening skills are exceptional. This is specifically important in the case of the vocal patients who openly reveal his or her needs to the nurses. As part of good communication skills, the nurse should be courteous as well as friendly as they deal with such patients. The nurse should be focused on the needs of the patient so as to build trust in their relationship.

Problems of poor communication between the nurses and the patients are common and they usually result to an inadequacy of treatment, errors, excessive pain and in some cases, death. Acquisition and application of communication skills, which can be simple and also inexpensive, can significantly reduce such cases. Provision of quality health care is achievable if the right communication channels are put in place, Shafer, (2007) advocates for a proper understanding of the emotions of the patient by health care providers as the attend to treatment needs of the patients (Shafer, 2007). Nurses should attend programs some existing programs which enhance their communication skills.

Works cited

Fischman, Josh. “Bridging the Language Gap. Some hospitals make non-English-speaking patients feel right at home”. U.S. News World Report, 141(2), 88, 90, 92, 2006.

Shafer, Emily. “Doctor-patient communication critical to patient care, expectations often not met”. HemOnc Today, 2007.