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The importance of listening skills
The importance of listening skills
Strategies for effective listening skills
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Recommended: The importance of listening skills
The “listening evaluation” was interesting to me. Based on the questions asked I scored a seventy-eight which indicates that I listen well. With my score, I believe that is one of my strengths. In my career field, it is imperative that I listen to what is being told to me by my patients, their family members or any clinical team member. That way proper medical care and treatment can be provided or initiated when warranted. Why did I score seventy-eight on this exercise? I feel it is because I listen to intuition, body language, common sense, and experience. In the beginning of my nursing career, I would not have scored this high, but with time came competence and I became more confident. Having self-confidence, allows us to open dialogs …show more content…
If we do all we can to make patients people feel that they are absolutely a priority; you will discover that they will open up and share things a lot of people would never obtain from them. I had a patient that was non-compliant with his medications and treatment for heart failure. He came across as a grumpy, hateful older man that nursing staff and some of the clinical team had brushed off and labeled as a “frequent flyer”. One night I was bound and determined that I was going to find out why he was not taking his medications and making his follow up appointments. During medication rounds, I had his medications to give him. After he took them, I sat down on the edge of his bed and starting talking with him about the weather. As the conversation progressed, he would ask me questions about my personal life and I would reciprocate about him. To make a long story short, he had just lost his wife of forty years, he was on a very limited income and could not read or write. I also found out that his wife was the one that made sure that his medications were taken as ordered. After our conversation, I notified all the proper channels of the team that night. Before the patient was discharged, home health was in place and his medication prescriptions were changed to where his insurance would
When we see patients, we must remember that we are not simply treating a disease. We are caring for people with lives, hobbies, jobs, families, and friends, who are likely in a very vulnerable position. We must ensure that we use the status of physicians to benefit patients first and foremost, and do what we promised to when we entered the profession: provide care and improve quality of life, and hopefully leave the world a little better than it was
A- Value seeing health care situations “through patients’ eyes”. The patient that I have chosen for this discussion is an elderly woman. Her diagnosis was a fracture of the left femur, which happened as a resident in a long-term care facility. Comorbidities include Alzheimer's disease and type II diabetes. She was described by other staff as being mean, uncooperative, difficult, and lazy; little did they know that I was a nurse at the long-term care facility and have cared for this woman many times prior to this hospitalization.
I pray that the busyness of life, the tasks that need to be done, the science of healthcare, sleep deprivation, or monotony will never cloud the love and compassion that I have for people. Personally, I love making connections with people. I love giving people a chance to tell their stories. During my nursing practice, I foresee that I will do my best to be the most caring nurse possible. The responsibility lays within each individual nurse as to the level of caring and compassion that they bring to carrying out their nursing duties. I will continually choose to focus on the needs of my patients above my own. Displaying empathy, I will strive to put myself in each one of their shoes and make self-reflection a priority. I foresee that I will do whatever is within my power to enhance trust, comfort, happiness, and wellness for my patients. This may look like spending extra time with a patient, visiting a patient when I’m off-duty, providing emotional or spiritual resources to a patient, respecting a patient’s beliefs and values, providing for any physical needs or extra comfort measures, or just lending a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on. My patients will always know that they are not
During my career as a registered nurse I have had the privilege of caring for my patients at the bedside and meeting their needs holistically. Additionally, the safety of my patients is one of the most important aspects of my current role. The experience of advocating for my patients during my nursing career has taught me to place my patient’s health and wellbeing first. The second most important aspect of nursing that I have learned during my career is how to meet my patient’s needs as a whole, not just physically but also emotionally and psychologically applying the holistic approach to each patient. I believe that the patient’s needs
This is one of the values that is of the utmost importance when being a nurse. We must have compassion for our patients. We as nurses will make an impact every single day in the lives of people in our community. We need to realize that we are the voice of the voiceless and the advocates for those who cannot advocate for themselves. You realize that even by helping one person, you are making a difference and are making the world a better place one patient at a time. Some of us may enter the field and some of us may be continuing on in our education, but we all share one thing in common, we are all nurses and we all made
Still, the previous advantages discussed should influence the nurse to improve in identifying patient vulnerability. This is evident by this patient where I utilized my interpersonal skills to communicate to this patient so that he/she is aware that he/she is not alone in this journey. Nurses need to utilize models and theories to guide nursing practice. For instance, McCormack’s framework focuses on patient-centered care which influences nurses to understand the patient as a whole and their values (Abley, 2012, p. 42). Being able to identify values will give nurses and myself a better comprehension about the patients resulting in worthiness and belonging expressed. As a result, informing nurses about patient’s subjective vulnerability because a trust and understanding relationship is established. This is supported in a clinical experience where a patient “felt understood and opened up for further interactions based on trust” through an honest, supportive relationship with a nurse (Gjengedal, 2013, p. 134). Nurses should provide patient-focused provision of service, and assist this patient in overcoming his/her obstacle as a way of encouragement. Furthermore, Sellman (2005) explains how encouragement may compromise human flourish (p. 7), it is dependent on the situation and it cannot be assumed all encouragement will lead to harm. This informs nurses to be aware of the consequences that prevent the
In order for optimal patient care to be achieved nurses need to be inspired by their work and feel supported by the health care staff. Both patients and nurses deserve to be given the attention and support they need to thrive. The patient to nurse ratio in California is already being addressed and this is a movement that needs to extend worldwide. It is imperative that health care professionals as a whole are being heard and supported. Patients depend on their health care providers and nurses are the backbone of patient care thus acknowledging their needs should always be top priority.
Literature Critique This literature critique reviews Catherine McCabe’s article, Nurse-patient communication: an exploration of patients’ experiences (McCabe, 2002). She has obtained many degrees related to health care (Registered General Nurse, Bachelor of Nursing Science, Registered Nurse Teacher, and Master Level Nursing). She has many years of experience and is currently teaching at Trinity Center for Health Sciences. As stated in the title, this study will review the patient’s interactions with nurses in relation to their communication. This study used a qualitative approach, as stated within the article, by viewing the life experiences of the participants.
“Communication is the heart of nursing… your ability to use your growing knowledge and yourself as an instrument of care and caring and compassion” (Koerner, 2010, as cited in Balzer-Riley, 2012, p. 2). The knowledge base which Koerner is referring to includes important concepts such as communication, assertiveness, responsibility and caring (Balzer-Riley, 2012). Furthermore, communication is complex. It includes communication with patients, patient families, doctors, co-workers, nurse managers and many others. Due to those concepts and the variety of people involved, barriers and issues are present. Knowing how to communicate efficiently can be difficult.
This piece of work will be based on the pre-assessment process that patients go through on arrival to an endoscopy unit in which I was placed in during my second year studying Adult diploma Nursing. I will explore one patient’s holistic needs, identifying the priorities of care that the patient requires; I will then highlight a particular priority and give a rational behind this. During an admission I completed under the supervision of my mentor I was pre-assessing a 37 year old lady who had arrived to the unit for an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. During the pre-assessment it was important that a holistic assessment is performed as every patient is an individual with unique care needs as the patient outline in this piece of work has learning disabilities it was imperative to identify any barriers with communication (Nursing standards 2006).
When I met my patient for this service project, I was unsure of how I should introduce myself and how I would explain my role relative to their care. My community health worker, Sherron, took all the pressure away from the situation; she had already established a relationship with my patient and I felt more like an invited member into a health care team rather than a new face with something to prove. Sherron had already taken steps to help my patient and I was an added benefit with pharmaceutical knowledge. I spent most of my time reviewing disease states and answering questions about drug therapy. My first interaction with the patient was the first primary care visit; I spent my time extracting medical information from the patient alongside the new physician. This first interaction lasted over an hour, there is no way the patient retained all the details discussed, however Sherron was keeping contact with the physician and was given copies of the patient’s medical record. Sherron kept in constant contact with the patient and was truly the best resource for information besides the patient
Communication plays a major role in preventing and resolving behavior problems and enhancing your patient’s quality of life by allowing them to feel, even when they no longer know or recognize those around them that they are in the midst of people who care about them and are concerned about their physical and emotional well being.
As mentioned by Smith-Trudeau, people-centered care is a means of practice designed by forming and encouraging advantageous connections among health care professionals and clients, as well as people who may be of significance to the client (Smith-Trudeau, 2016). In order to make the change toward people-centered care, I plan to make it a point to create therapeutic relationships with my clients as well as their families in an effort to make them feel as though I care about what they have to say, and what they want from their treatment. It is vital to me that the client does not have to withstand unnecessary treatment, this is promted by English who affirms: “Nobody wants to go through unnecessary tests, avoidable readmissions, or other forms of waste that burden their lives while achieving no health benefit” (English, 2016, pg. 295). I will strive to promote a safe atmosphere where the client understands what health care professionals are saying, contrasting the health care staff in WIT. This movie has also opened my eyes to the fact that health care providers often take part in conversation that is not professional with colleagues and clients. I will remain professional throughout my career, avoiding inappropriate conversation with other health care providers, as well as with clients in order to avoid potential feelings of insignificance. The movie WIT as well as the research performed surrounding people-centered care has made me understand that in order for the client to feel comfortable and respected, it is vital that I as a nurse provide a safe environment for them, as well as offer information that may be required for the client to fully understand their diagnosis and treatment
I think it is important that I clarify my own values to ensure that my care is client-centered. Self- reflection during care is also fundamental as it makes me aware of my actions and whether they are establishing a therapeutic relationship or doing the opposite.. Finally, I need to learn to be more empathetic towards my patient’s situations by being interactive, gaining insight and avoid being focused on the task and more on being with the situation. Some things that I will preserve are attentively listening, demonstrating attending behaviours and maintaining my patient’s dignity by ensuring privacy and
However, the lack of set accountabilities results in the inability to differentiate when nurses are overstepping and when its necessary to disclose themselves from patient treatment. Medical professionals begin overstepping without established professional boundaries, which results in “negligence of patients needs at expense of their own” (Tyrell, 2016). Because of the long-term treatments and bonds formed throughout the healing process, many patients and nurses confuse this with friendship. As Tyrell and Pryor mention (2016), friendly nurse-patient relationships may be healthy and influencing during rehabilitation, but nurses must remind themselves of the goal at hand which involves helping the patient regain function as soon as possible and allow them to return to their old or altered