Communication in nursing is important for enhancing patient understanding, reducing medical errors and promoting team collaboration. Yet, nurses may encounter barriers to nurse/patient communication, including language barriers, cultural differences and noisy environments. To improve communication, you can use the patient teach-back technique, cultivate empathy and enhance cultural competence.
Communication is one of the most critical soft skills for professionals, and this is true across various industries, fields, and specialties. In the nursing field, communication is particularly essential. Communication in nursing can affect the quality of patient care and the ability of team members to do their jobs well. In addition to solid nurse-patient communication, precise and reliable communication among team members and healthcare providers is essential.
At Pacific Lutheran University’s Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (PLU’s ABSN) program, students begin learning nursing communication skills from day one. Our curriculum fosters collaboration and discussion through online courses, in-person labs and clinicals, honing communication skills for success. Now, let’s examine communication in nursing and how it can form the foundation of a new career path.
What Is Effective Communication in Nursing?
Listening and picking up on nonverbal communication can be just as vital as speaking clearly. It requires an understanding of intent, purpose, expectations, and cultural competence that respects differences.
Communication in nursing can look different depending on the situation. Consider the following scenarios:
- Communicating to prevent errors: A critical care nurse is concerned that one of his patients is not responding well to the medication. He discusses his concerns with the physician, who orders a new medication. The physician is in a hurry and jots down the dosage quickly. The dosage seems unusual. Before administering the new medication, the nurse follows up with the physician and discovers the dosage was an error.
- Nonverbal cues awareness: A triage nurse at an ER is taking the medical history of a woman who has arrived with a probable wrist sprain or fracture. Her husband accompanies her. The woman hesitates in answering when asked how she sustained the injury. Noticing this, the nurse asks the patient’s husband if she can speak to the patient without the husband present.
- The patient teach-back technique: A home health nurse teaches a family caregiver how to perform toileting tasks for a bedridden patient in hospice care. The caregiver seems overwhelmed by the situation. To ensure the family member can care for their loved one, the nurse asks the caregiver to repeat the steps out loud.
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Key Communication Skills in Nursing
Several aspects of communication in nursing are essential to making your voice heard and ensuring you can be an effective caregiver and patient advocate. The elements that make up key communication skills are listed below.
Nonverbal Communication
Nurses must be observant and pick up on nonverbal communication cues from their patients. A skilled nurse may sense when a patient is uncomfortable or in pain and when they may be hesitant to disclose personal information. Likewise, nurses must use nonverbal communication cues effectively, such as maintaining a caring, concerned facial expression and using open body language.
Active Listening
Active listening is vital for both nurse-coworker and nurse-patient communication. It involves paying close attention to what is being said, processing it, understanding it, and being attuned to the speaker’s perceptions and feelings.
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The Importance of Communication in Nursing
Why is communication so important in nursing? Clear, accurate communication among nursing team members and between nurses and other healthcare providers minimizes the potential for errors, which consequently improves patient outcomes. Strong communication facilitates collaboration, teamwork, efficient operations, and workflow.
Clear communication with patients helps them understand their diagnoses and treatment options more clearly. Nurses who are good communicators encourage patients to ask questions, which in turn empowers patients to make better decisions for their health and to follow treatment protocols more closely. Furthermore, patients may feel more comfortable disclosing sensitive health information to nurses who are skillful communicators.
Challenges to Effective Nurse-Patient Communication
The importance of communication in nursing is evident, but that only sometimes means it is easy. There are a few obstacles to clear communication in nursing, including:
Language Barriers
When a nurse and patient do not speak the same native language, misunderstandings are more likely. A language barrier may also discourage some patients from seeking healthcare at all.
A commitment to improving access to care for patients regardless of their native language is necessary across all areas of healthcare. Nurses need to be educated on accessing healthcare interpretation services, for example, and hospital websites should clearly state in multiple languages that interpreters are available.
Cultural Differences
A person’s culture can govern how they feel about personal space and touch, how they prefer to be addressed (e.g., first name or last name), and how they perceive matters of life, death, and health. Of course, no nurse can be expected to understand the nuances of every culture. When cultural differences may affect healthcare or its delivery, nurses should ask patients to explain these differences to them.
Poor Health Literacy
Nurses are educated in high-level concepts and health care techniques. It is important to remember that the general population has not received nursing education and training, and patients have varying levels of health literacy.
Every nurse is responsible for promoting better health literacy. Patients generally do not need to grasp the concept of perfusion, for example, but they should understand basic health information to make informed healthcare decisions.
Accessibility and the Physical Environment
One of the most overlooked barriers to effective communication in nursing includes elements of the physical environment. Nurses need to be aware of factors such as:
- Loud spaces can affect how well the patient can hear and focus on the conversation.
- Foot traffic in the area can affect how comfortable the patient feels about sharing health information. For example, a patient in a shared room may feel uncomfortable discussing information with their roommate’s family nearby.
Other related factors may also contribute to communication issues and healthcare accessibility. For example, patients experiencing extreme discomfort or pain might be less willing to engage in conversation. Additionally, if the patient perceives that the nurse is very busy, the patient may be less likely to request pain medication when needed.
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How to Promote Effective Communication
Every nurse is responsible for developing better communication skills. Some of the steps to take are listed below.
Cultivate Empathy
Empathy allows nurses to understand their patients better and identify potential challenges hindering clear communication. Nurturing empathy can also support better interpersonal interactions among nursing team members.
Strengthen Cultural Competence
Although nurses are not expected to understand the nuances of every culture, they should take steps to better understand the preferences of cultures represented by significant portions of their local population. For example, members of some cultures favor using home remedies, only going to the hospital when their condition may have already advanced to a critical point. Others may minimize their symptoms, characterizing their pain as a low number on the pain scale, even if their pain is severe.
Nurses can explore the demographics of their local area and educate themselves on different cultural preferences and associated perceptions of health matters.
Use the Patient Teach-Back Technique
The patient teach-back technique is highly effective at improving nurse-patient communication and identifying misunderstandings. It involves asking the patient to state what you have told them in their own words.
Some healthcare providers may worry that this technique might make patients feel patronized or belittled. To avoid this, you can begin by saying, “I know this is a lot of information to take in, and I want to make sure that I explained everything well enough. Can you please tell me in your own words which complications to watch out for and how to take your medications?”
Begin Your Journey Toward a Rewarding Career in Nursing
You can build a strong foundation for success in nursing at PLU. If you have completed a non-nursing bachelor’s degree or at least 60 non-nursing college credits, you may be eligible for our Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.
Our ABSN students can graduate with a BSN in as little as 16 months, fully prepared to tackle any challenge in nursing. At PLU, caring goes beyond kindness and consideration – we produce nurses who are committed to expanding well-being, opportunity, and justice. In addition to hard nursing skills, we teach the soft skills that nurses need to succeed, including communication skills.
Contact an admissions representative at PLU today to learn more about becoming a strong nurse communicator.