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The Principles Of Effective Communication

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Abstract Within nursing, there is a very delicate balance between a nurse and her patient that must be maintained if the patient is to receive the care that he or she is entitled to receive. The patient must feel comfortable trusting his nurse to hear his needs and respond to them appropriately and in order for this to be the case, the nurse must first provide therapeutic communication effective enough to elicit such a response in her patient. There are both verbal and non-verbal components within the nurse-patient relationship. These components greatly influence how a nurse and patient will relate to each other and, ultimately, greatly influence the care that the patient receives.

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Effective communication is of tantamount importance in the scope of a successful nursing practice. It depends heavily upon both verbal and non-verbal methods (AJN). It is inclusive of both behavioral and speech components. Being efficient in both delivering and receiving messages between the nurse and the patient helps initiate and maintain a healthy relationship. Employing both verbal and non-verbal communication between the nurse and the patient will help ensure that the relationship they share remains satisfying to both parties. Therapeutic Communication There are many factors that can influence how effective therapeutic communication is. These factors can include such things as age, culture, gender, language, willingness, and cognitive and developmental levels. For patients that wish to participate actively in their own health care, effective therapeutic communication is extremely important (Mass. Dept. of Higher Ed.). Verbal communication includes the physical spoken words that results from functional cognitive and physiological mechanisms that result in, recognize, and receive speech (Hood). Nurses employ many different strategies so that they may communicate effectively. Nurses use open-ended questions when asking their patient for information (Dwyer, M.). This requires the patient to respond with more than simply “yes” or “no,” and facilitates further communication between the nurse and patient. An example of an open-ended

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