With all of the training today’s nurses receive and all the technology they have at their disposal, old-fashioned communication skills can fall by the wayside. But for nurses, communication skills still matter. Strong communications skills help nurses pass crucial patient care information on to their co-workers and can be a vital aspect of providing holistic care to a patient — initiating a brief conversation with a patient during care offers the perfect opportunity to find out how he or she is feeling and whether any treatment changes are necessary.
Communication skills also help nurses manage conflict in the workplace. It’s easy to have good communication skills when you’re calm, but how are your skills when you’re angry or facing someone who’s angry with you? If you plan to study online for a degree to advance your nursing career, and especially if you plan to use your Master of Science in Nursing to pursue a leadership position, you’re going to need to make keeping your communication skills sharp a priority throughout your career. Let’s take a look at some ways you can develop and maintain your communication skills as a nurse.
Be Honest
As a nurse, you need to make honesty a key component of your communication with patients and co-workers. Always mean what you say and keep your promises. Try to remain available and responsive to your patients and their families — a common reason many patients and their loved ones become irritated with care providers is that they feel like they’re being ignored.
Think of the patient who arrives for a doctor’s appointment on time and is made to wait, without explanation, for half an hour before being seen. That patient might be irritated at the long wait, but if it were explained to him or her upon his or her arrival that a previous patient’s appointment was running over and a wait could be expected, he or she might understand.
Ask Questions
When you see your patients, take the opportunity to check in with them and ask how they’re feeling. You can gain valuable patient care information that way. But you can also use questions to navigate a conflict with an irate co-worker, loved one or patient. Questions like “What makes you say that?” or “Can you give me an example?” are great ways to ferret out information in the midst of a conflict and get to the root of another person’s feelings.
Be Disarming
Many conflicts can be derailed when you disarm the other person. Do this by finding a kernel of truth in their statement. No matter how irrational, unfair or unreasonable someone’s accusations may feel, there is often a reason, either justifiable or not, behind them. Say something like, “You’re right, I’m often short with people when I’m frustrated,” is often enough to defuse the situation and open a dialogue.
Show Respect
Even in the midst of a heated conflict, it’s important to show respect to another person. Avoid making accusations or spreading blame by phrasing your hurt feelings as “I” statements.
Whenever you, as a leader or co-worker, have some criticism to deliver, you can often avoid conflict altogether by cushioning the blow in genuine praise. Saying something like “I really admire your dedication to your patients” before delivering gently-worded criticism can make the pill easier to swallow.
Practice Empathy
Empathy is an important communication skill you can use with patients and with co-workers. Try to understand the other person’s perspective. In conflict, you can make the other person feel heard by repeating what you think they’re trying to say, and asking if that’s what they meant. You can also state the feelings you think they’re expressing – “You seem upset and angry right now,” for example.
Cultivating an awareness of your co-workers’ and patients’ cultural frames of reference is an important part of cultivating empathy. You might be approaching a person with the best of intentions, displaying what seems like an appropriate empathetic attitude, but his or her cultural frame of reference could make your body language, tone of voice and general demeanor seem very different from what you intended. Be aware of where your patients and co-workers are coming from.
As a nurse, it’s vital that you develop your communications skills and keep practicing them to keep them sharp throughout your career. Enlist the help of a co-worker, relative or friend to help you practice your communications skills in imaginary scenarios. You never know when you’re going to need them.