The Importance Of Effective Communication

Communication allows us to share our thoughts, pass on information, to learn and exchange ideas. Effective communication is the key to a successful work relations whether it is with health care staff, patients, or their families. Verbal communication is important because the how we deliver the message is what is important. Our tone of voice, rate of speech, and how clearly the message was conversed can dictate the receivers response. One of the keys to good supervision is the ability to communicate to people what they must do to provide the required care and, often, how the care should be given [1].

Communication firstly starts with being a excellent listener which involves being able to hear what someone says. There is no such thing as excessively communicating. More mistakes happen from not communicating enough. Clear communication avoids mistakes. With nursing care or health care in general we need to focus on explaining, clarifying, and communicating more; which is all for the health and benefit to our patients recovery, also making you a safer and more effective nurse. Ineffective communication is reported as a significant contributing factor in medical errors and inadvertent patient harm [4]. In addition to causing physical and emotional harm to patients and their families, adverse events are also financially costly [4].

In order to facilitate effective communication, one must understand what communication consist of and how it works. Basically when we communicate it is a between two people. Those two are interchangeably both being the sender, both conveying a message and both being the receiver of that message. And with that there are four types of communication to keep in mind; which are verbally though our ...

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...king sure that meaning comes across. This is particularly true when dealing with patients and their families.

In the health care setting when a sender of a message conveys their message rather verbally, or written it is more than likely important information; so you do not want your message to get loss or be interpreted incorrectly. That is why it is best to be clear and concise.

It is important to be concise with the information being communicated making sure to only transmit significant details when communicating with staff. It is key for the message to be centered on the patient so either the sender or receiver becomes confused to the details which might lead to a mistake. It is great how Lakeland system has the aids get report not only from the going off aids but from the RNs also. This ensures all the staff is on the same page when caring for their patients.