Therapeutic Communication Essay

Introduction

Healthcare professionals are required to build a therapeutic relationship with their patient or client but in doing so, different forms of communication styles are required. Communication is vital for transference of information between people. For a therapeutic relationship to be strong, the nurse needs to gain trust from the patient through nursing knowledge and communication skills (Stickley & Freshwater 2002, pp. 250-256). Sometimes this process is difficult but necessary to create a therapeutic relationship between the two. Dare and Boyd (2004, pp. 20-21) have stated verbal and nonverbal and communication skills. Through exploring the different types of verbal and non-verbal communication there will be an exploration of how they are used to assist the healthcare professional in collecting subjective and objective data from patients.

Objective data includes aspects of the patient’s condition through a health assessment, examinations and tests on blood pressure, heart rate, breathing and many more, whereas subjective data is determined by the patient’s point of view which includes their pain level, feelings, perceptions physical discomfort and more (Taylor 2008, p.260).

Verbal communication skills allow for the patient to clearly understand what the nurse is trying to portray. The use of simplicity, clarity, relevance and adaptability are examples on how a nurse will need to adapt this skill. Without this skill vital information may not be transferred from client to nurse. Verbal communication skills play a role in obtaining subjective and objective data from the patient by allowing the nurse to ask open ended questions, thus then the nurse gives adequate time for the patient to