Reflecting on one’s Communication Skills Essay Example for Free

Reflecting on ones Communication Skills EssayIntroduction nurse students give the bounce enhance their learning by dint of reflection that is, reflecting on a situation that involves nursing give cargon (Parker 2006, p.115). In line with this thought, I sh e very(prenominal) reflect on an fetch and discuss the communication skills I used or should have used during the patient encounter. I go out use the three what model based on the work of Borton (1970) and Boud (1985) to help structure my reflection. Before press release any further, I am invoking the provision in the NMC (2008) code which decl ares the need to respect peoples confidentiality hence, the identity of the patient who will be cited in this reflection will be kept anonymous. He will be given a pseudonym and will merely be refslideed to as Mr. B What? Mr. B is a 75-year-old patient in a nursing home diagnosed with dementia. Initially, it was my mentor who initiated nursing care to him and I was instructed to continue its delivery.The rationale why my mentor assigned me to Mr. B was so I can sharpen my communication skills. During my interaction with Mr. B, I tried to remain calm and spoke in delay and short sentences. I also used simple words although at times, I can non help alone repeat what I have already said because I was not sure whether the patient understand my statements. So What? At first, I was aboveboard hesitant and quite nervous when I interacted with the patient. I was already aware of his condition hence, I was in a dilemma as to how I can pass off with him. This go through helped me realise that communication is truly an important partition of nursing practice. Mastering all the function nursing tasks and other complicated nursing interventions will all have been for nothing if a keep does not know how to initiate a curb-patient therapeutic kinship or interaction which naturally begins with communication.To simply put it, Ellis, Gates and Kenworthy (2003, p.2 14) declare that honourable communication is vital to in effect(p) nursing. According to Collins (2009) good communication helps build a therapeutic relationship which is central to nursing. It is a must for a have got to be able to communicate effectively with the patient because communication is the tool that will allow the nurse to reassure a patient, empower the patient, motivate the patient, put a patient at ease, and convey reason of the patients concerns (Collins 2009). I realised that communicating with a patient with dementia is more demanding than I have actually predicted. His condition was definitely the barrier that hindered effective communication.Even though I spoke in clear, short and simple sentences, in that respect were still instances when the patient did not understand what I said or may be pretended to have not heard what I said. With this, I realise that one effective counter against such(prenominal) circumstance is to establish and maintain genuine son orousness with the patient which can be done through frequent therapeutic conversations with the patient. Rapport entails trust and sanction of the patient to the nurse. Without, a nurse will have difficulty convincing a patient to take after instructions or adhere to advices.The feature also led me to realise the importance of valuing non-verbal communication. Before, I honestly took for granted non-verbal communication because the patients I consecrateled in the past had no cognitive impairments that hindered verbal communication. It was only during this experience that verbal communication is little reliable due to the patients condition. This experience pointed out that a patients facial expression, presence or absence of eye contact, and bodily gestures can all help decipher a patients mood, feelings and attitude towards the nurse and the interventions given by the nurse. Videbeck (2010, p.107) denote that it is crucial for a nurse to understand what a patient is trying to communicate by elbow room of observing non-verbal cues. I learned that a truly competent nurse is nearone who is able to mensurate not only what a patient can verbalise further also assess those non-verbal cues displayed by apatient which may lead the nurse to truly understand how the patient feels and what the patient needs. at pitch What The experience helped me learn the importance of both verbal and non-verbal communication. As an aspiring nurse, I have to continuously sharpen my communication skills because I shall be interacting with more varied patients in the future. I have to be able to establish rapport with each new patient and I can do this by communicating with them. I must maximise my communication with my patients because I can do a lot of things by communicating such as motivate, empower, educate and understand my patients. Conclusion To sum up, reflecting on an experience will help discover different important learning. It will increase ones fellowship iden tify strengths and weaknesses in ones skills. Communication is key to building rapport and therapeutic relationship with patients. A nurse must al expressive styles improve on his or her communication skills in parliamentary procedure to better deliver nursing care.ReferencesCollins, S. (2009). Good communication helps to build a therapeutic relationship. (online) lendable at http//www.nursingtimes.net/nursing-practice/clinicalspecialisms/educators/good-communication-helps-to-build-a-therapeuticrelationship/5003004.articleEllis, R., Gates, B. and Kenworthy, N. (2003). Interpersonal communication in nursing Theory and practice. London Churchill Livingstone.Nursing Midwifery Council (2008). The code Standards of conduct, consummation and ethics for nurses and midwives. London NMC. Parker, M. (2006). Aesthetic ways in day-to-day nursing. In Freshwater, D. (Ed.). Therapeutic nursing amend patient care through self-awareness and reflection. London SAGE Publications Ltd.Videbeck, S. (2010). Psychiatric-mental health nursing. 5th edn.,Philadelphia Lippincott Williams Wilkins.Introduction aseptic proficiency is the practice of carrying out a procedure in such a way that minimises the risk of introducing contamination into a vulnerable area or contaminating an invasive devise (Dougherty and Lister 2011, p.129). Aseptic proficiency includes several methods such as sterilising instruments, using antiseptic peck scrubs, and donning of sterile gowns, gloves, caps and masks (Cho and Alessandrini 2008, p.43). In line with this thought, this turn up will explore the underlying rationales and evidence for the performance of two common methods of aseptic technique. These methods are hand lavation and gloving which I personally performed many times during practice placements.Practising Aseptic Technique The delivery of effective nursing care rests on the hand of the nurse. This statement does not only apply figuratively only if also literally because the hands of a nurse must not only be assailable of performing tasks, it must also be clean while performing such tasks. Hand lavation is simply indispensable in the performance of any and all kinds of nursing care activities. It becomes too daily that sometimes it is intentionally or unintentionally neglected or performed in a manner that is less than satisfactory. As a student nurse, it was made clear to me that proper hand race is a very important initial step in the delivery of nursing services.I have performed hand process countless times, some at an acceptable standard while others below standard. The origin for strongly recommending or kinda enforcing the need to perform hand washing may be traced from Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis who advocated the performance of hand washing with a chlorinated solution among doctors before assisting women in labour (Case 2011). White (2005, p.527) defines hand washing as the rubbing together of all surfaces www.newessays.co.uk and crevices of the hands usin g a soap or chemical and water. It is a part of all types of isolation precautions and is the most basic and effective transmission-control measure to prevent and control the transmission of infectious agents. Hand hygiene which includes hand washing and gloving, is the single most crucial means of preventing transmission of antibiotic-resistant organisms such as the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci or VRE (LeTexier 2011).The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2003, p.28) or NICE in its guideline for infection control dictate that hand washing and gloving are two fundamental modes of preventing healthcare-associated infection. The World Health Organization (2006) highly recommends that health care workers wear gloves to prevent microorganisms present on the hands to be transmitted to patients and to reduce the risk of workers acquiring infection from patients. The effectiveness of donning gloves in prevent ing contamination of infectious agents has been confirmed in many clinical trials (WHO 2006). To reiterate, both hand washing and gloving are two of the most indispensable methods of aseptic technique however, amidst the overwhelming evidence on the benefits of both procedures, on that point are still erring professionals. Nurses, doctors and other health care professionals still do err in the performance of such procedures.In my case, I have done it many times before but sometimes, I still forget to do it or consciously neglect to do it. Perhaps, the problem lies not within the knowledge of the need to perform it but rather on the manner by which it should be perform. There are varying ways and means of performing hand washing. In fact there are different kinds of hand washing. There is the medical hand washing which is similar to ordinary hand washing and there is also the surgical hand washing. Every institution has its own version on how to perform hand washing.This is also tru e for donning gloves. There are different brands of gloves each of which advertise some form of advantage over the other. There are also different modes of donning gloves such as the easy technique and the close technique. There are also different varieties of gloves like clean gloves and surgical gloves. The differences and varieties with the way hand washing and gloving may be performed may account for the reason why some professionals err in the performance of these two important aseptic technique procedures. Another factor in the manageable non-compliance of some healthcare professionals may be related to convenience in the performance of such procedures. For instance, when a nurse is overwhelmed by work-related stress due to high inpatient census, sometimes, the simple act of washing hands is intentionally neglected.As a solution to this, it is recommended to make hand hygiene convenient (JCR 2009, p.64). Instead of the handed-down soap and water, it is possible to achieve t he same effect with alcohol based scrub thereby, eliminating the need for washing hands with water. It is also advisable to choose gloves that have special fit for different sizes of hands rather than the fit-all type of gloves. Conclusion In summary, hand washing and gloving are two common types of aseptic technique which are indispensable in the everyday practice of nursing. It has been well established that hand washing and gloving are crucial in the efficient delivery of services particularly in the aspect of preventing the spread of infection. scorn this known fact, some still err in complying with such procedures.ReferencesCase, C. (2011). Handwashing. online Available athttp//www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/hand_background.phpCho, C. and Alessandrini, E. (2008). Aseptic technique. In King, C., Henretig, F. and King , B. (Eds.). Textbook of pediatric emergency procedures. Philadelphia Lippincott Williams Wilkins.Dougherty, L. and Lister, S. (2011). The Royal Marsden Hospi tal Manual ofClinical Nursing Procedures Student edition. 8th edn., Chichester John Wiley Sons Ltd.Joint Commission Resources (2009). Meeting joint commissions infection prevention and control requirements A priority focus area. 2nd edn., Illinois Joint Commission Resources.LeTexier, R. (2011). Preventing infection through hand washing. Online.Available at http//www.infectioncontroltoday.com/articles/2000/07/preventing-infection-throughhandwashing.aspxNational Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2003). Infection control ginmill of healthcare-associated infection in primary and community care. online. Available at http//www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/CG2fullguidelineinfectioncontrol.pdfWhite, L. (2005). Foundations of nursing. London Thompson Delmar Learning.www.newessays.co.ukNursing Essay adjudicateWorld Health Orgnization (2006). The first global patient safety challenge Clean care is safer care. online. available at http//www.who.int/gpsc/tools/Infsheet6.pdfwww.newess ays.co.uk