Analytical Essay On Listening, Questioning, And Feedback Skills In Nursing.

Limitation

Discuss about the Analytical Report on Listening, Questioning and Feedback Skills.

The purpose of the report is to analyse the interpersonal communication skills in details and make the recommendations for incorporating listening, questioning and feedback skills in nursing.

The report has only focused on three interpersonal communication skills which include listening, feedback and questioning. The other interpersonal communication skills omitted by the report include self talk, interviewing and mastering non- verbal communication.

The report discusses on listening, questioning and feedback as the interpersonal communication skills in details and provides the benefits and challenges of incorporating them in the nursing. The report finalize by providing a conclusion and recommendation for using the interpersonal communication skills in nursing.

The report is written from information sourced from journal articles and textbooks.

Listening is a very important skill in facilitating interpersonal communication (Subramanian 2013). The listening skills differ from one individual to the other and can determine the success of relationship between individuals. According to Tingle (2016), the best way to improve on listening skills is by practising active listening. Active listening involves listening at the information from the communicator and at the same time attempting to understand the message. A person can implement active listening by paying attention to the communicator, showing that he/she is listening to the speaker, providing feedback, defer judgement and responding appropriately. Paying attention is enhanced by refraining from distractive thoughts, looking to the speaker directly, avoiding environmental distracters and being keen on the speaker body language (Tingle 2016). The person can show that he is listening to the speaker by nodding occasionally, comments like yes or no and use of facial expressions like smiling. Providing appropriate feedback to the speaker is important in portraying that an individual is listening actively (Silverman, Kurtz  & Draper 2016). An individual should also defer judgement until the speaker is through with communication in order to avoid interrupting the speaker.  The listener should also respond appropriately by providing opinions respectfully and being honest while responding to the speaker.

Feedback occurs when the receiver of the message respond to the sender of the message (McCabe & Timmins 2013). An effective feedback should be accepted, understood and heard clearly. There are several ways to enhance effective feedback and include.

The person providing the feedback should make it clear. According to McCabe & Timmins (2013), the clarity of the feedback makes the speaker feels that the audience is listening keenly. The language used by the responder should be simple for an individual to understand. The use of highly technical feedback is not appropriate when responding to the people who cannot understand the technical jargon.

Scope

The feedback should be provided to the sender at the right time. There are feedbacks that are required instantly in order for a person to make an important decision on a particular matter. Arnold & Boggs (2015) assert that It is important to provide feedback at the right time for it to be of benefit to the sender. Untimely feedback act as barrier to interpersonal communication and hence hinders interpersonal relationships.

The response to the message from the sender can either be positive or negative. Reeves (2015) argues that an individual providing feedback should ensure that he/she emphasis on the positive comments more than the negative comments as People usually screen out the positive comments if the negative responses are emphasised.

Questioning is an important skill in enhancing interpersonal communication (Gbobbo 2007). The verbal and the nonverbal questioning should be used to enhance effective interpersonal communication. Questions can take different format as described below

Open questions are the mostly used questions in interpersonal communication. According to Gbobbo (2007), the open questions do not require a specific answer but expect the responder to describe and explain the answer in details. The open question will therefore help in developing a communication, getting more details on a particular issue and acquiring the other person’s opinion on a certain issue.

The closed-ended questions are answered by use of a short phrase or a single word. Most of the questionnaire where discussion is not required uses the closed ended questions. The closed ended questions are usually answered by a yes or a no response without further explanation (Breckman 2008). The closed ended questions are mostly appropriate in questionnaires that require a specific answer but no during conversation between one person and the other.

Effective interpersonal communication is important in facilitating treatment and positive outcomes form the patient’s condition. The nurses should therefore embrace listening, feedback and questioning skills while dealing with their client in order to promote interpersonal communication.  The three skills have several beneficial as discussed below.

The listening, feedback and questioning are important skills in nursing while gathering information from the patients (Mhlanga 2013).. The patients should be asked questions in order to gather information on their disease. Active listening is also essential for the nurses during the collection of their information from the patient. The patient also requires feedback from the nurses in order to understand his/her medical condition and understand how the treatment procedure will be undertaken. Mhlanga (2013) assert that the information gathered by the nurses by use of interpersonal communication is essential in deciding the right treatment for the patient.

Methodology

The nurses usually consult their fellow colleagues in order to solve the patient diseased condition. The nurse should embrace the interpersonal communication skills in order to acquire the information from the patient and treat the patient effectively. The nurse administers the appropriate treatment to the patient depending on the feedback the patients provide. According to Škodová (2016), the nurse who lacks the appropriate listening and questioning skills may administer incorrect treatment that will not solve the patient condition.

The interpersonal communication skills are important in building a rapport between the nurses and the patient (Škodová 2016). The patient feels satisfied with the nurse who can listen, give her feedback and available for questioning.

Effective interpersonal communication enhanced by listening, feedback and question skills is important in determining the needs of the patient. The nurse should use the interpersonal communication skills to explain to the patient on the treatment options available for the patient to choose the best option. Duggan (2006) argues that the nurse is able to understand the treatment options that the patient admire and other needs of the patient by use of interpersonal communication skills in an effective manner.

The Patient view on the quality of care is determined by the quality of interaction between the patient and the nurse (Breckman 2008). The quality of interaction is enhanced by embracing the three basic interpersonal communication skills that is listening, feedback and questioning. According to Breckman (2008), effective interpersonal communication improves the patient health condition by influencing the patient willingness to participate in care, self management, and promoting adherence to treatment.

Patient disability present as one of the greatest challenge in incorporating listening, questioning and feedback in order to enhance interpersonal communication ( Duggan 2006). The patient who have hearing problems, deaf and blind act as a barrier to incorporating the three skills in communication.

The unconscious patients hinder the incorporation of listening, questioning and feedback in nursing (Roloff 2015). The patient must be active to enhance the three skills in communication.

The incorporation of the interpersonal communication skills in nursing requires the nurse and the patient to understand each other’s language. Roloff  (2015) claims that the language barrier present as a challenge to listening, questioning and feedback in nursing practices.

The emotion barrier is as a challenge for incorporating feedback, listening and question skills in the field of nursing. According to (Duggan 2006), the patient emotional status of stress, disappointment and frustrations due to illness inhibit the use of use of the communication skills in an effective manner.

Discussion

Conclusion

The basic interpersonal communication skills are questioning, feedback and listening. The communication skills are important in enhancing interpersonal communication between the patient and the nurse. The listening, questioning and feedback skills should always be incorporated in interpersonal communication between the patient and the nurse because of their benefits . The communication skills are important in nursing as they help in building rapport, understanding patient needs, solving problems, improving the patient condition and gathering essential information from the patient. The nursing practice experience challenges while incorporating interpersonal communication which includes patient unconsciousness, patient disability, emotional barriers and language barrier between the patient and the nurse.

Interpersonal communication is an essential component in nursing practice. The patient and the nurse should always strive to create an effective interpersonal communication. The nurse should be train on the three basic skills for enhancing interpersonal communication in order to deal with the patients in an effective manner and create therapeutic relationship. The nurse should practice on listening, questioning and feedback skills on daily basis when dealing with their clients. The managers in the health sector should always inspect on their nurses in order to determine whether they are using the interpersonal communication skills effectively. The managers should constantly inform their nurses on how to enhance interpersonal communication and demonstrate the potential

References

Arnold, EC & Boggs, KU, 2015. Interpersonal relationships: Professional communication skills for nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Breckman, B, 2008. Communication and Interpersonal Skills. Nursing Standard, vol.23, no. (11), pp.31-31 . 

Duggan, A, 2006. Understanding Interpersonal Communication Processes Across Health Contexts: Advances in the Last Decade and Challenges for the Next Decade. Journal of Health Communication, vol.11, no. (1), pp.93-108

Gbobbo, J, 2007. Communication skills: A tool for interpersonal relationship in nursing care. Port Harcourt Medical Journal, vol.1, no. (2).   

Mhlanga, F, 2013. Communication and Interpersonal Skills in Nursing. Nurse Education in Practice, vol.13, no. (1), p.e1.   

Reeves, H, 2015. Communication & Interpersonal Skills in Nursing Bach Shirley and Grant Alec Communication & Interpersonal Skills in Nursing 208pp £19.99 Sage/Learning Matters 9781473902572 1473902576. Primary Health Care, vol.25, no.(7), pp.12-12. 

Roloff, M, 2015. Theorizing Interpersonal Communication: Progress and Problematic Practices. Commun Theor, vol.25, no. (4), pp.420-425.  

Silverman, J, Kurtz, S, & Draper, J, 2016. Skills for communicating with patients. CRC Press.

Škodová, Z, 2016. Communication and Interpersonal Skills Enhancement in Midwifery: Review. CEJNM, vol.7, no. (3), pp.504-510.         

Subramanian, K, ed, 2013. Excellence in business communication. Pearson..

McCabe, C & Timmins, F, 2013. Communication skills for nursing practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Tingle, J, 2016. Encouraging a listening and learning culture for feedback and complaints. British Journal of Nursing, vol.25, no. (12), pp.698-699.