What are some positive communication strategies that you have observed in the clinical training site?
One positive communication strategy is to train a multidisciplinary team to improve the communication in the intensive care unit (ICU). In their study, Shaw, Davidson, Smilde, Sondoozi, and Agan (2014) conducted a pre-post intervention design study to test the efficacy of a multidisciplinary training program of ICU healthcare professions in communicating with family members of critically ill patients. The setting was a community hospital ICU with the medical and surgical units. Healthcare workers in the multidisciplinary team were trained on communication with families of ICU patient’s family members using the standardized approach SPIKES, which stands for setup, perception, invitation, knowledge, emotions and strategy. Confidence in communicating with family members of ICU patients was assessed before and after 6 to 8 weeks after the training program using a validated instrument. The results of the intervention resulted in improved staff confidence to communicate with ICU patients’ family members and on family satisfaction with communication measures. This intervention can be easily replicated in other hospital settings.
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What are some negative communication strategies that you have observed in the clinical training site?
Some negative communication strategies observed in the clinical training site involves communicating with culturally and linguistically diverse patients. Communication seems to be difficult in the context of language barriers and nurses have been witnessed to use the family members of their patients as spokespersons who demonstrate the most proficient in English. This strategy has been found to exacerbate feelings of stress and helplessness among nurses (Cioffi, 2013).
For those negative observations, briefly discuss what could have done differently in order to promote positive communication.
To address the negative observations in communication with culturally and linguistically diverse patients, one strategy is for healthcare workers to access telephone interpreters for face-to-face interviews with patients. Unfortunately, this strategy is often not used by nurses when communicating with this population (Cioffi, 2013). In order for communication with culturally and linguistically diverse patients, nurses should make every effort to be knowledgeable of cultural sensitivities. This will also allow for the nurse to pick up on non-verbal cues that are associated with a specific culture. These non-verbal cues may be in the form of body language, touching, etc.
- Cioffi, J. (2013). Communicating with culturally and linguistically diverse patients in an acute care setting: Nurses’ experiences. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 40, 299-306.
- Shaw, D.J., Davidson, J.E., Smilde, R.I., Sondoozi, T., & Agan, D. (2014). Multidisciplinary team training to enhance family communication in the ICU. Critical Care Medicine, 42, 265–271. doi: 10.1097/CCM.0b013e3182a26ea5
