Reflecting on one’s Communication Skills Essay

Introduction take in students potentiometer enhance their learning done beamion that is, reflecting on a situation that involves breast feeding cargon (Parker 2006, p.115). In line with this thought, I shall reflect on an make love and discuss the chat skills I used or should ease up used during the uncomplaining encounter. I allow use the leash what model based on the work of Borton (1970) and Boud (1985) to armed service structure my reflection. forwards going any further, I am invoking the provision in the NMC (2008) enter which decl ars the need to respect peoples confidentiality hence, the identity of the patient role of who will be cited in this reflection will be kept anonymous. He will be given a pseudonym and will precisely be ref divagateed to as Mr. B What? Mr. B is a 75-year-old patient in a nursing home diagnosed with dementia. Initially, it was my mentor who initiated nursing make do to him and I was instructed to continue its foregoy.The rationale wh y my mentor assigned me to Mr. B was so I can sharpen my communication skills. During my interaction with Mr. B, I time-tested to remain calm and spoke in slow and short sentences. I overly used simple words although at times, I can non help just now repeat what I have already said because I was not sure whether the patient understood my statements. So What? At first, I was honestly hesitant and quite nervous when I interacted with the patient. I was already aware of his condition hence, I was in a dilemma as to how I can go through with him. This experience helped me realise that communication is unfeignedly an serious part of nursing physical exercise. Mastering all the routine nursing tasks and other complicated nursing interventions will all have been for nix if a obtain does not know how to initiate a halt-patient curative relationship or interaction which naturally begins with communication.To manifestly put it, Ellis, gate and Kenworthy (2003, p.214) declare that good communication is vital to hard-hitting nursing. According to collins (2009) good communication helps build a therapeutic relationship which is central to nursing. It is a moldiness for a nurse to be able to communicate effectively with the patient because communication is the tool that will allow the nurse to reassure a patient, empower the patient, motivate the patient, put a patient at ease, and convey understanding of the patients concerns (Collins 2009). I realized that communicating with a patient with dementia is more difficult than I have actually predicted. His condition was definitely the barrier that hindered effective communication.even though I spoke in clear, short and simple sentences, in that location were tranquilize instances when the patient did not understand what I said or may be pretended to have not heard what I said. With this, I realise that one effective counter against such background is to establish and maintain genuine vibrancy with the patien t which can be do through frequent therapeutic conversations with the patient. Rapport entails trust and government agency of the patient to the nurse. Without, a nurse will have difficulty win over a patient to follow instructions or adhere to advices.The experience also led me to realise the importance of valuing non- vocal communication. Before, I honestly took for given(p) non- oral communication because the patients I devoteled in the past had no cognitive impairments that hindered verbal communication. It was only during this experience that verbal communication is less reliable due to the patients condition. This experience pointed out that a patients facial expression, presence or absence of eye contact, and bodily gestures can all help decipher a patients mood, feelings and stance towards the nurse and the interventions given by the nurse. Videbeck (2010, p.107) relate that it is of the essence(p) for a nurse to understand what a patient is trying to communicate by nub of observing non-verbal cues. I learned that a truly competent nurse is nighone who is able to assess not only what a patient can verbalise but also assess those non-verbal cues displayed by apatient which may lead the nurse to truly understand how the patient feels and what the patient needs.Now What The experience helped me learn the importance of both verbal and non-verbal communication. As an aspiring nurse, I have to continuously sharpen my communication skills because I shall be interacting with more varied patients in the future. I have to be able to establish rapport with each new patient and I can do this by communicating with them. I must maximise my communication with my patients because I can do a bargain of things by communicating such as motivate, empower, educate and understand my patients. determination To sum up, reflecting on an experience will help discover diverse important learning. It will increase ones knowledge let on strengths and weaknesses in one s skills. Communication is key to building rapport and therapeutic relationship with patients. A nurse must alship canal repair on his or her communication skills in order to better deliver nursing business concern.ReferencesCollins, S. (2009). Good communication helps to build a therapeutic relationship. (online) open at http//www.nursingtimes.net/nursing-practice/clinicalspecialisms/educators/good-communication-helps-to-build-a-therapeuticrelationship/5003004.articleEllis, R., Gates, B. and Kenworthy, N. (2003). Interpersonal communication in nursing Theory and practice. capital of the United moguldom Churchill Livingstone.Nursing & Midwifery Council (2008). The code Standards of conduct, murder and ethics for nurses and midwives. London NMC. Parker, M. (2006). artistic expressive styles in day-to-day nursing. In Freshwater, D. (Ed.). Therapeutic nursing up patient care through self-awareness and reflection. London SAGE Publications Ltd.Videbeck, S. (2010). Psychiatric-ment al health nursing. fifth edn.,Philadelphia Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.IntroductionAseptic technique is the practice of carrying out a modus operandi in such a way that minimises the risk of introducing contaminant into a vulnerable area or contaminating an invasive devise (Dougherty and lister plough 2011, p.129). Aseptic technique includes several methods such as sterilising instruments, using germicidal expire scrubs, and donning of sterile gowns, gloves, caps and masks (Cho and Alessandrini 2008, p.43). In line with this thought, this essay will explore the underlying rationales and evidence for the performance of ii common methods of aseptic technique. These methods are circulate washing and gloving which I personally performed many times during practice placements.Practising Aseptic Technique The delivery of effective nursing care rests on the hands of the nurse. This statement does not only apply figuratively but also literally because the hands of a nurse must not only be capable of performing tasks, it must also be clean while performing such tasks. Hand washing is simply indispensable in the performance of any and all kinds of nursing care activities. It becomes too mundane that sometimes it is intentionally or unintentionally pretermit or performed in a manner that is less than satisfactory. As a student nurse, it was made clear to me that proper hand washing is a very important initial step in the delivery of nursing services.I have performed hand washing countless times, some at an acceptable standard while others below standard. The origin for strongly recommending or earlier enforcing the need to perform hand washing may be traced from Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis who advocated the performance of hand washing with a chlorinated solution among doctors before assisting women in labour (Case 2011). White (2005, p.527) defines hand washing as the rubbing unitedly of all surfaces www.newessays.co.uk and crevices of the hands using a soap or ch emic and water. It is a part of all types of isolation precautions and is the most basic and effective infection-control measure to prevent and control the contagious disease of infectious agents. Hand hygiene which includes hand washing and gloving, is the single most crucial means of preventing transmission of antibiotic-resistant organisms such as the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci or VRE (LeTexier 2011).The National represent for Health and clinical rightness (2003, p.28) or NICE in its rule of thumb for infection control dictate that hand washing and gloving are two fundamental modes of preventing healthcare-associated infection. The homo Health Organization (2006) gamely recommends that health care workers wear gloves to prevent microorganisms present on the hands to be ancestral to patients and to reduce the risk of workers acquiring infection from patients. The effectiveness of donning gloves in preventing con tamination of infectious agents has been confirmed in many clinical trials (WHO 2006). To reiterate, both hand washing and gloving are two of the most indispensable methods of aseptic technique however, amidst the overwhelming evidence on the benefits of both procedures, there are still erring professionals. Nurses, doctors and other health care professionals still do err in the performance of such procedures.In my case, I have done it many times before but sometimes, I still go forth to do it or consciously neglect to do it. Perhaps, the problem lies not within the knowledge of the need to perform it but rather on the manner by which it should be perform. at that place are varying ways and means of performing hand washing. In fact there are different kinds of hand washing. There is the medical hand washing which is interchangeable to ordinary hand washing and there is also the surgical hand washing. Every institution has its own version on how to perform hand washing.This is als o true for donning gloves. There are different brands of gloves each of which reveal some form of advantage over the other. There are also different modes of donning gloves such as the open technique and the close technique. There are also different varieties of gloves like clean gloves and surgical gloves. The differences and varieties with the way hand washing and gloving may be performed may account for the fountain why some professionals err in the performance of these two important aseptic technique procedures. Another factor in the possible non-compliance of some healthcare professionals may be related to convenience in the performance of such procedures. For instance, when a nurse is overwhelmed by work-related stress due to high inpatient census, sometimes, the simple act of washing hands is intentionally neglected.As a solution to this, it is recommended to make hand hygiene convenient (JCR 2009, p.64). sooner of the traditional soap and water, it is possible to achieve the same effect with alcoholic beverage based scrub thereby, eliminating the need for washing hands with water. It is also wise to choose gloves that have special fit for different sizes of hands rather than the fit-all type of gloves. Conclusion In summary, hand washing and gloving are two common types of aseptic technique which are indispensable in the habitual practice of nursing. It has been well established that hand washing and gloving are crucial in the efficient delivery of services particularly in the diorama of preventing the spread of infection. Despite this known fact, some still err in complying with such procedures.ReferencesCase, C. (2011). Handwashing. online Available athttp//www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/hand_background.phpCho, C. and Alessandrini, E. (2008). Aseptic technique. In King, C., Henretig, F. and King , B. (Eds.). Textbook of pediatric emergency procedures. Philadelphia Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.Dougherty, L. and Lister, S. (2011). The Royal Marsden Hospital Manual ofClinical Nursing Procedures Student edition. 8th edn., Chichester John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Joint Commission Resources (2009). get together joint commissions infection prevention and control requirements A priority focus area. 2nd edn., Illinois Joint Commission Resources.LeTexier, R. (2011). Preventing infection through hand washing. Online.Available at http//www.infectioncontroltoday.com/articles/2000/07/preventing-infection-throughhandwashing.aspxNational Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (2003). Infection control Prevention of healthcare-associated infection in primary and residential district care. online. Available at http//www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/pdf/CG2fullguidelineinfectioncontrol.pdfWhite, L. (2005). Foundations of nursing. London Thompson Delmar Learning.www.newessays.co.ukNursing Essay SampleWorld Health Orgnization (2006). The first global patient safety challenge easy care is safer care. online. available at http//www.who.int/gpsc/ tools/Infsheet6.pdfwww.newessays.co.uk