What is the most important aspect to consider when communicating with patients?
There are several aspects a nurse must consider when communicating with a patient. They include the patient’s level of consciousness; ability to interpret spoken language; whether the patient can read the written language; if the patient can hear/speak and the culture of the individual. While each one of these features mentioned is important in my professional practice they can all be summarized in understanding the patient’s culture is the most important aspect the nurse must consider when communicating with a patient.
Communication analysts have reference many theories showing the impact of culture on communication. A person’s culture determines their language communication style. Most importantly, interpretation of words within that particular language is also influenced by the person’s culture (Carey, 2008). For example, even though a patient may speak English, which also could be spoken by the attending nurse; a word such as ‘get’ may be perceived differently within that patient’s cultural context. As such, if the nurse says ‘get up’ the patient may not understand that it means stand up since he/she may interpret ‘get’ to mean ‘take.’
Consequently, cultural competence in communication is very important to nursing practice, because misunderstanding a person’s culture could not only inhibit communication, but also effective health care. If a patient speaks another language that is different from the one spoken by the nurse, any health care team always would try to quickly get an interpreter. While this is commendable Carey (2008) argues that communicating with a person out of cultural context is as ineffective as speaking a foreign language. Therefore, attention ought to be paid when expressing body language, gestures and voice tone fluctuations. These are subtle aspects of communication that can hinder accurate transmission of a message.
References
Carey, J. (2008). Communication as Culture. New York. Free Press
