Читать книгу The Nursing Associate's Handbook of Clinical Skills - Группа авторов - Страница 23

Poor communication between nursing associates and those they offer care and support to can occur for a variety of reasons. The provision of health and social care can be very unpredictable, complicated and stressful. The needs of patients can arise unexpectedly, and their condition can change very rapidly; when there is a communication breakdown, this can lead to negative care outcomes.

This chapter will focus on the underpinning knowledge of communication and will be followed by a series of chapters that will examine the specific communication skills required by the nursing associate. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2018) standards of proficiency for nursing associates require, at the point of registration, the nursing associate to communicate effectively using a range of skills and strategies with colleagues and people at all stages of life and with a range of mental, physical, cognitive and behavioural health challenges; this is closely related to platform 1, that is, being an accountable professional.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines communication as ‘the transfer of information, ideas or feelings’ (World Health Organization 2009, p.16). More recently, communication has been described as ‘the exchange of information between people by sending and receiving it through speaking, writing or by using any other medium’ (Sibiya 2018, p. 20). Effective communication means that information is conveyed clearly between people. To be an excellent nursing associate requires communication skills to engage effectively with patients using two‐way communication. Failure to recognise this two‐way communication could lead to negative conclusions, negative attitudes and dissatisfaction. The nursing associate must, therefore, continuously try to improve their communication skills to ensure high quality patient‐centred care.

Models of communication help us to consider the processes involved when communicating in several arenas with a variety of people. They provide a visual representation of the different aspects of a communication encounter, simplifying the numerous steps the nursing associate needs to consider. Having this underpinning knowledge can help the nursing associate think about their current communication encounters, plan for future communication encounters and reflect and learn from the previous ones. The three main models that will be discussed in this chapter are the transmission/linear, interaction and transaction models of communication.