Explore the importance of developing effective communication skills in nursing.
Communication is the base for everything done in everyday life as well as in professional practice. What and how something is said will send a number of messages to the receiver; these messages are sent and received both knowingly and unknowingly (Sully and Dallas, 2005). Nurses evidently deal more with patients than any other health care worker (McCabe and Timmins 2006), therefore it is very important that effective communication skills are developed, as they will be supporting the patients, the relatives and then communicating back to other health care workers. This essay will be looking at the importance of developing effective non verbal communication skills, the effect different levels of communication has on patients, and adapting communication skills where barriers exist.
Communication is both verbal and non verbal, Verbal communication is often seen as the most important form of communication (McCabe and Timmins, 2006). However when people are communicating, words make up only seven percent of the message. The other ninety three percent is made up by how the message is said, the tone of the message and body language (Argyle, 1989 cited by McCabe and Timmins, 2006). So from looking at the information Argyle presents, it is clear to see that non verbal communication has much more of an impact than verbal communication. Although what is said will still have to have meaning and be appropriate. Non verbal skills need to be developed to a high standard to ensure patients are always receiving the message the sender wants them to receive. Non verbal communication specifically used by nurses includes listening, touch and body language (McCabe and Timmins, 2006). Listening is clearly one of the most important communication skills, as stated in the code of conduct (2008) The Nurse must