In this video, we’re walking through the therapeutic communication, and the different techniques that you would use to help foster a therapeutic relationship, as a nurse, with your patients.
Verbal Communication:
There is communication through our verbal or written words that portray our message. They must be appropriate for our audience, and in their preferred language with appropriate pacing and the tone of voice.
Non-Verbal Communication:
Your body positioning, eye movements, the tone of our voice, facial expression, and our posture all play a big part in how our patients perceive us and entrust us to care for them competently.
Active Listening:
Being attentive to both non-verbal and verbal cues, and facilitating patient communication. Making eye contact with your patient, facing them, but at an appropriate distance, and relax to help your patient feel relaxed as well. Ask for clarity, or paraphrase, and validate to show that you are listening.
Silence:
Silence helps to give them the opportunity to talk freely, or to sit and process.
Non-Therapeutic Techniques:
These could be things such as asking personal questions that aren’t relevant to the patients care. Giving personal opinions, or using an automatic response or a false reassurance, is not conducive to a therapeutic relationship.
The same goes for defensive, passive, or aggressive responses, are not going to help foster a relationship that is therapeutic for our patients.
Now, it takes self awareness to acknowledge these unconscious facial expressions we all have, and can take some time to be aware of when we are doing so. But it is very important in order to maintain and foster that therapeutic environment for our patients that we are aware of our self bias’s and our possible facial expressions that may occur.
You are going to be an outstanding nurse, friend. I believe in you.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
1:20 Definitions
1:59 Verbal communication
4:09 Non-verbal communication
5:58 Active listening
6:56 Silence
7:28 Non-therapeutic techniques
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
In this video, we’re walking through therapeutic communication, and the different techniques that you would use to help foster a therapeutic relationship, as a nurse, with your patients. We’ll walk through examples, so you’re not just memorizing information for your nursing school exam, but you actually will know how to use therapeutic communication in real life. Because that is what it is all about, being able to use your knowledge and apply it in real life.
Because let’s be real, when was the last time your nursing school exam tested you on memorization, especially with something like therapeutic communication. They just don’t do that.
They are going to test you on how well you apply the information you’re learning. Can you go through a case scenario and answer a question using therapeutic communication? That is what they will test you on in nursing school.
So don’t worry, I’m going to go through the main points for therapeutic communication that you’ll be test on in your nursing school exam.
And of course, I have a free cheat sheet for you to help you learn things faster in nursing school. So be sure to stay until the end of the video and I’ll let you know where you can get that.
Now hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell and let’s dive in.
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Therapeutic communication simply means how we communicate with our patients to support them as best as possible.
With every action, eye movement, word both spoken and unspoken, we are communicating with our patients. We are caring for people during what might be the most life altering event, and often one of their most vulnerable states.
That is not something we should take lightly, and it is our job as the nurse, to foster a therapeutic environment with therapeutic communication in order to help the patient feel safe, heard, and respected.
There is communication through our verbal or written words that portray our message, and how we go about doing this can have a big impact on how our message is perceived.
The words we choose, and how we present them must be appropriate for our audience. For example, you wouldn’t tell a 2 year old you were going to give them their vancomycin through their IV. Instead you would say,
“I’m going to give you your medicine to help you feel better right here in your tubey, I will just be pressing buttons to make your machine beep, you can keep playing with mommy.”
The words we choose need to be developmentally appropriate and in the patients preferred language. Your nursing school exams are going to be making sure you know how to do this. Part of learning how to become a nurse, is learning how to communicate with your patients. Our medical terminology can often be confusing. Think back to when you were just starting out in your courses, your first day of nursing school. Think of how overwhelming all the vocabulary was. Your patient will feel the same way if we don’t use the appropriate choice of words for them specifically.
Now, how about if I talk really really fast and LOUD. Or start whispering and talking really slow.
How does that make you feel? Neither one is great, right?
Pacing and the tone of your voice can play a big part in how your message is perceived. You wouldn’t want to yell to your patient,
“DID YOU LEAVE A URINE SAMPLE IN THE BATHROOM?!”
You would instead quietly and discreetly ask that.
The same…
goes…
for…
pacing…
Unnatural pauses would leave room for interpretation and distrust with the patient. We don’t want that to happen. You want to make sure your timing is appropriate, and that you communicate in a clear and concise manner.
Now, let’s talk about Non-verbal communication. So our body positioning, eye movements, the tone of our voice, facial expression, and our posture all play a big part in how our patients perceive us and entrust us to care for them competently.
Our physical appearance, clean and neat clothes, hair that is contained, our posture and how we move through our environment will say a lot to our patients about our capabilities and how we will care for them as the patient.
Say, if we are hurriedly rushing in and out of our patients room, with wrinkled clothes and hair in our faces, it will give the impression that we are not organized or that we do not have the supplies we need to do our jobs correctly and competently care for them.
Remember, we are brought into patients lives usually at one of the most vulnerable time in their life. We want to make sure our patients feel safe and in competent hands when they are under our care. This includes how we present ourselves.
Our eye contact and facial expressions often give away our true feelings and emotions, even when the verbal words don’t match.
Now, it takes self awareness to acknowledge these unconscious facial expressions we all have, and can take some time to be aware of when we are doing so. But it is very important in order to maintain and foster that therapeutic environment for our patients that we are aware of our self bias’s and our possible facial expressions that may occur.
Okay, so we covered, verbal and non verbal communication. Let’s dive into active listening which is another important technique that is used in therapeutic communication.
You probably do this already, and aren’t even aware of when it is happening. Or you can probably pinpoint someone in your life that you would go to talk to about pretty much anything. Yes, that person, we all have who is always a great listener. They are probably really good at active listening.
So active listening involves being attentive to both non-verbal and verbal cues, and facilitating patient communication.
Making eye contact with your patient, facing them, but at an appropriate distance, and relax to help your patient feel relaxed as well. Ask for clarity, or paraphrase to show that you are listening. Validate what your patients are sharing or their feelings, and ask relevant questions to show interest.
Now, silence is another technique that might not be one that you have thought of before. But using silence to help the patient sort through their feelings, can be super helpful. Silence helps to give them the opportunity to talk freely, or to sit and process. Silence can take some getting used to, but it can truly help to foster your relationship with your patients.
So since we’ve covered how you should be talking and communicating with your patients, let’s chat a little about some things that are not so therapeutic. So these would be the answers you would NOT want to pick on your nursing school exams. The ones that they might sneak in there to really test your knowledge, but don’t worry friend, we’ll go over them so you know exactly what not to do.
Non-therapeutic techniques could be things such as asking personal questions that aren’t relevant to the patients care. They don’t serve a purpose in the care you are providing to your patients, they are more out of curiosity and personal interest. Those would be non therapeutic techniques.
This also goes for giving personal opinions, such as saying,
“Well if I were you, I wouldn’t pursue any further treatments.”
That is not therapeutic and is not conducive of empowering your patients rights to make their own decisions.
As nurses want to be sure we are fostering relationships that offer a safe place for discussion of therapy options without interjecting our own opinions and bias’s into them as well.
Another non-therapeutic technique would using an automatic response or a false reassurance like,
“As you get older you will get more confused, that is just part of life.”
Or saying this to a terminally ill patient,
“Don’t worry, you will be fine.”
Those are not conducive to a therapeutic relationship.
The same goes for defensive, passive, or aggressive responses, are not going to help foster a relationship that is therapeutic for our patients.
As the nurse, we have to take that role and the responsibility that comes with it very seriously, which can mean keeping your opinions to yourself, or holding back even when an argument is being ensued by a patient or family member.
It is our responsibility to be a voice of reason and bring calm to the situation instead of succumbing to the level of our patients and families who are experiencing a traumatic, difficult, or unexpected event.
You are going to be an outstanding nurse, friend. I believe in you.
As the nurse, it is our responsibility to make sure our patients feel heard, safe, and confident in our care because ultimately everything we do effects them and their outcome. It is our job to make sure that we foster the therapeutic relationship and continue to enhance it with therapeutic communication as we care for our patients.
Now this is just one of the many topics that are covered more in depth inside the NursingSOS Membership Community. You’re not alone in nursing school, friend. So if you’re struggling with fundamentals in nursing school, be sure to check out the step-by-step videos we have for you inside the NursingSOS Membership Community. I’m here to hold your hand every step of the way. The link is in the description for you to check out all the details.
And make sure to download the free nursing school study checklist we have for you that walks you through how to study in nursing school, step-by-step. The link is in the description below for you to check that out.
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