Nurse/Patient Communication
Communication is can be defined as an exchange of ideas or information. Communication is important in all areas of life and all professions. In nursing, communication is very important since a patient needs to communicate well and clearly with the nurses (Chapman, & Kimberly, 2009). Communication is all important and very essential among the nurses and doctors. However, in the nursing profession, very little information or training has been provided to ensure that the nurses are well skilled when it comes to communication with their patients as well as amongst themselves. This has resulted to a number of challenges during communication. Despite this, some experts have put together literature that can be used as a guide to healthy communication between nurses and their patients. The literature is available in print form and electronic form like television programs.
For starters, it should be noted that good communication between nurses and patients ensures that the patient gets the best treatment, reducing unnecessary costs and avoiding risks that would follow as a result of giving a patient the wrong treatment. It has also been proven that communication is in its own way therapeutic. If a nurse is able to create a good rapport with a patient, the patient is able to relax making it easy for the nurse to deal with them.
A popular television series program better known as Royal Pains tells a story about a doctor who works in a high profile hospital but is later dismissed from the hospital after a benefactor of the hospital dies while under his care. The doctor, Hank, moves to another state and works as a personal doctor to the rich and powerful. However, a senior doctor convinces Hank to help out the needy in the society and he is torn between working for the rich where he gets paid well and helping the poor who are not in a position to pay for his services. He struggles with this for quite some time but is able to create time to work for the both the rich and the needy as well.
In season three of the television series, it is evident that there is no healthy communication between the doctors and nurses and their patients. A number of mistakes such as giving the wrong prescription to some patients occurred due to the lack of good communication. However, in a number of cases, Hank was able to give the right treatment because he was able to relate well with the patients. This helped him identify the problems and complications that the patients had, and hence he was able to treat them appropriately. This was evidenced in episode one of season three where a doctor Hank was able to relate well with Judy, who was an accident victim (Royal Pains, 2012). The communication between the doctor and the patient enabled the doctor to identify another complication that could have easily passed unnoticed.
However, in the eighteenth episode of the third season, one of the nurses gives the wrong prescription to a patient, resulting to more complications. This endangers the life of the patient and had a doctor not found him in good time, then it would have meant the end of his life. The nurse was not able to communicate well with the patient because she was tired after having to juggle in between two jobs (Royal Pains, 2012). The nurse was therefore too tired and stressed out and therefore did not take time to communicate with the patient or at least observe them, before giving the prescription.
A good nurse should be able to put a distinct boundary between their personal issues and their job since the slight distractions serve as a barrier of communication between them and their patient. Lack of communication has fatal consequences.
References
Chapman, Kimberly B. (2009, November). Improving Communication among Nurses, Patients,
and Physicians. American Journal of Nursing, 109(11), 21-25
Royal Pains. (2012, January 18). Season one: Episode three. Retrieved from
http://www.tvfanatic.com/shows/royal-pains/episodes/season_3/traffic/#ixzz1m6QFeRLa
