Communication

Principles of communication. Aled Jones School of Health Science interpersonal skills – an exploration of teaching, research and practice issues. quality of interaction between nurses and patients (Bowles et al 2001) there is an increased awareness of the importance of communication skills teaching and for effective evaluation of student nurse performance in this area (Booth et al 1999). methodological approach – that of conversation analysis (CA) - provides a viable approach to study this type of interaction; with a particular eye on the teaching and assessing of interpersonal skills within an undergraduate adult nursing programme. nursing students used examples of transcripts and tape recordings of nurse-patient interaction SEGUE framework for assessing the quality of practitioner-patient communication from a patient centred perspective. NHS ‘Putting Patients First’ Studies from Macleod-Clark (1983) to Whittington & McLaughlin (2000) describe nurses as investing little time in meaningful patient centred interactions with less than 3 minutes being spent communicating with patients over a 2 hour observation period The most common reason forwarded by nurses for this is a perceived lack of time for reciprocative patient-centred communication (Ashworth 1980, Bond 1983, Byrne & Heyman 1997). Communicating is something we do naturally all the time. We decide what we want to say. And we choose the best way to say it. Nurses need a unified message and an efficient way of getting that message over. We should think about: ! our audience–who are we aiming the message at' ! the message–what do we want to tell them' the method/medium–what is the best way to communicate the message' ! the outcome—what do we want to happen' Who is the target audience' Generally we are all more interested in things that might affect us directly. For example if we were writing about a pay claim, branch members would be interested in the details of the claim and the likelihood of getting it. The general public would be more interested in what the claim is if the employer’s response might lead to a disruption or reduction of the service. How to communicate the message How we communicate with people depends on what we want to say; what systems exist; what method will make it easier for the person to get the message; and how quickly we need to communicate. ! Face-to-face communication is the most successful way of communicating. There’s instant feedback, we can see how the person reacts and respond immediately to what they’re saying. Leafleting and petitioning is another face-to-face method of communication. It’s better than just sending out the stuff because we can talk with people and respond to what they say. Talking Using the telephones has many of the advantages of face-to-face communication. It can be a quick and efficient way to get our message to, or consult with, a lot of people But it’s only suitable for simple, short messages because complicated messages will get muddled along the way. Media Using the media is a way that a nurse can get its message over to patients. Written communication With written materials, we don’t have the advantage of seeing how the person reacts and responds, so we have to be more careful to get the message right. If we’re writing, the language we use is important. To communicate effectively it’s better to use short sentences and simple, easy to read, everyday language. It’s important that there are up-to-date and accurate mailing lists. newssheet is essential. It’s a way to get all sorts of information to members. It has the advantage of giving a consistent message–everyone gets the same information. Make sure that our stationery is professional-looking. Keep the language simple. Leaflets are a good way to send a message on a single issue. There’s room to develop arguments and to tell people what we want them to do. But the message must be clear. In the first crucial few seconds a person decides whether to bin it or read on. Posters are effective at getting a simple message out, unless they’ve been on the notice-board for a long time! But they must catch people’s attention immediately. Noticeboards are neglected. Often the material on them is closely-typed text which nobody will read, or so out-of-date that nobody bothers to look at it any more.