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Therapeutic Communication
And Nursing Considerations As a nurse, one must expect to be faced with diverse situations. From teaching patients of varied educational backgrounds to explaining a difficult diagnosis, it is the place of the nurse to build a proper relationship and provide therapeutic communication to each person in the most effective manner possible. This paper first describes the fundamental elements of the communication process, and second, reviews the three levels of communication with nursing applications. Third, this paper differentiates between verbal and nonverbal communications, and furthermore describes the nurse’s focus in the nurse-patient relationship. This paper outlines therapeutic and non-therapeutic communication techniques, with regard to cultural diversity and patients with alternative communication needs.
The Communication Process “Communication is an interactive process between two or more persons who send and receive messages to one another”(Varcarolis, 2010, p. 175). “Two common elements of every communication exchange are the sender and receiver. The sender initiates the communication. The sender is a person who has a need or desire to convey an idea or concept to others. The receiver is the individual to whom the message is sent. The sender encodes the idea by selecting words, symbols, or gestures with which to compose a message. The message is the outcome of the encoding, which takes the form of verbal, nonverbal, or written language. The message is sent through a channel, which is the carrier of the communication. The channel can be face-to-face conversation, telephone call, e-mail, or written report”(Lunenburg, 2010, p. 2). “The receiver decodes the message into meaningful information. Noise is anything that distorts the message. Different perceptions of the message, language