Elements of Professional Communication (Nursing)

00:01 Alright, so we've talked about those different examples of therapeutic communication.

00:05 How we need to apply professionally, and how we were gonna use those providers, families, and other people in our health care system.

00:14 So, when we are talking and communicating professionally, there's a lot of things that go into this. So, think about our appearance.

00:22 If I was standing up here in wild colors and lots of makeup and maybe I have lots of -- my hair is disheveled, I don't look neat, I look dirty, that may come off a little bit off for you about your trust in me to take care of you as a patient, right? So, something to think about, our appearance does more than we really know.

00:45 The other thought is using names, so saying, "Hi, Mrs. Smith, I'm gonna be your nurse today." So, what that does is really just kinda provide a relaxed kind of a personal touch to when we're talking to patients.

01:01 It also shows effort that we've really tried to say, hey, let me recognize that I know who you are and I'm gonna use your name with this.

01:09 So, now let's talk about being trustworthy in our professional communication.

01:13 It seems like a no brainer, right? Be honest with your patient.

01:16 So, sometimes, in health care, we just don't know what's going on, and that's okay.

01:21 But what we can do is say, "Hey, Miss Jones, I'm not sure what's going on, but we're gonna do our best to find out for you." That is much more real and much more honest than us giving them false sense of hope or telling them misinformation.

01:36 If we don't do that as health care providers, that completely breaks our therapeutic relationship with our patient.

01:43 The other thing we have to think about is our behaviors.

01:47 How we conduct ourselves.

01:48 You can imagine I can be a professional in a room, but let's say outside of -- in the nurses' station, the family member comes out, and I'm yelling at another team member or I'm being very unprofessional, you can imagine that their judgment on how that we are perceived, would definitely change.

02:08 And easy enough, be courteous to your patient.

02:11 Take time, be courteous and listen to your patient and to others and health care providers that you work with.

02:19 So, professionally, when we communicate, one thing to keep in mind, is also being assertive, and what I mean by that is not aggressive, what I mean is about being decisive in how we deliver our message.

02:31 And next, we also wanna think about how being responsible in how we deliver that message is going to be key when talking with our clients.