The paper comprehensively analyzes a communication event that happened at The Royal Melbourne Hospital on Wednesday, June 12th, 2019 during my placement as a nurse in practice. The communication event covered comprises of the Nursing Student/Patient Spoken Interaction where I got to engage with Miss Claire Matthews. The paper analyzes the approaches and processes that enabled me to have effective communication with my patient leading me to identify a problem and offering a solution to the patient. To clearly analyze the event, the paper extensively provides a communication description, analysis of the communication processes, evaluation of the degree to which the communication processes comply with hospital policies and professional standards, as well as, the event’s influence on the student’s (my) own nursing practice.
Communication Event Description
The best communication event analysis that I find to be fundamental to analyze comprise of the nursing student/patient spoken interaction. The event took place at The Royal Melbourne Hospital during my placement to gain more experience and learning to advance my career in nursing. As a practicing nurse, I was assigned roles to engage with the patients, interact with them, make some tests on Blood Sugars, High Blood Pressure, Weight, HIV/Aids test, among others to patients visiting the hospital for other treatments. The exercise was additional to other treatments that the patient sought from the hospital despite not being diagnosed or in need to be treated on the particular set of potential diseases (Catherine et al. (n.d).
On Wednesday, June 12th, 2019, I received one of the rare patients that I got to engage with during my nursing practice. While seated on the bench unperturbed, Claire Matthews seated without the concern of what I was doing to other patients first. Among all the patients that I engaged with; she was one of the patients that did not show any interest in taking part in the exercise I was conducting. After a while, I decided to engage her directly and see what comes out of our conversation (Evanoff et al. 2005). There I was starting a conversation and said: “I like it here, it’s so cool.” On her response, she said, “yeah, it’s nice living in this part of the country.” One thing led to another and we were acquainted with one another.
After a while, I offered to run some tests on her. I tried to convince her that the tests were harmless and do not hurt to have different health tests. At first, she remained hesitant prompting me to show the advantages of having the tests and early diagnosis. I also offered to run some breast screening on her to ascertain her health status which is critical to take care of herself (Dingley et al. 2008). Miss Matthews showed signs of being deeply engaged in her thoughts and wanted to get to the depth of the matter. On my conversation with her, I discovered that she was in an abusive relationship that risked her high blood pressure fluctuating highly, a cause for alarm (Norouzinia et al. 2016). Also, she had bruises on her wrists and neck that I discovered while conducting breast screening. Thank God the conversation bore fruits as I discovered traces of breast cancer at early stages. I engaged her emotionally, appealing to the need to take care of herself and promised to seek counsel from the head of my department and the hospital lawyer on steps to proceed to ensure she does not suffer that same fit that she had experienced in the past risking a range of health diseases including suffering depression (Fakhr-Moyahedi et al. 2016).
Communication Processes
The processes that I followed in engaging in a conversation with Miss Matthews follows the introduction of myself to the patient. Once I got her attention, I introduced myself, who I am, and some of my experiences in life. For instance, I narrated to her a story of how I liked fishing with my dad. This enabled us to engage at ease, like two random people having a jovial conversation. This helped her to open up and show the interest in taking part in the exercise I was conducting (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou 2014). Second, I employed three key features in the conversation. While holding her hands to measure her high blood pressure level, weight, and height for the BMI analysis, I remained observant for small ques on topics she avoided, smile to show her my likability and need to engage, and calm to be welcoming and make her feel comfortable having a conversation with me (Xie et al. 2013). I have always believed that having a nice conversation with the patient and making them feel good that they are in the first step to effective treatment. Thus, the approaches proved to be no different as I was able to get her talking and take part in the exercises I was conducting (Bramhall 2014).
Similar, as observant as I was and noticed the bruises, I offered comfort and support to understand what was going on with her life. I was determined to help her manage her depression level by diagnosing the root problem to potentially cause other diseases in her (Shafakhah et al. 2015). The depression and high blood pressure were a result of extensive thinking, fear, and anxiety caused by the abusive relationship. The developing breast cancer was from the blows thrown to her by the partner. Therefore, I offered my comfort and patient/nurse(doctor) privilege to enable her to trust me with what was going on in her life (Heidari & Mardani 2015). Most importantly, I engaged the process of being respectful to the patient. By giving her time to gather her thoughts and remain calm, as well as, respecting the ordeal she was going through, I proved to be a concern and to care of her well-being (Vertino 2014). Consequently, by informing my department head of office Doctor Sean Murphy, he led me to seek legal counsel from the hospital lawyer Madam Isabel Kyle.
The degree to which the Processes Comply with the Venue Policies and Professional Standards
By seeking to understand the patient and why she remained reserved, the communication complies with the hospital policies and professional standards to engage actively and positively with the patients (Beck et al. 2013). With the goal to induce positive impact on the patients, I was in line with my duties as a nurse and health profession to know why the patient remained reserved while all other showed the interest to take part in the exercises I was conducting (Ayman et al. 2014). This proved to be a move in the right direction as I ended up having a healthier conversation and helping a patient who was in dire need (who knows what would have happened if I did not intervene at that particular time) (Gordon et al. 2015). As a result, the patient was committed to a stream of tests to fully diagnose her health problems on time for advanced medical treatments.
In engaging with the patient constructively, remaining calm, offering comfort, and respecting her views, I upheld the highest professional standards. This proved to be an effective approach to get the patient comfortable and engage positively by opening up on issues that affect her. By talking, I was able to offer help to someone who did not show the interest or need to be treated at the time (Wang et al. 2018). This is an effective way of providing the nursing services and care provided to the patient. Professional conduct, humane, care, and showing concern to our patients (Vermeir et al. 2015). However, I went overboard by promising to get to the root cause of the health issues I identified with my patient. It is the first rule of the hospital policy and professional standard, “never to promise what you are not certain you can deliver.”
Event’s Influence on the Student’s Communication within the Nursing Practice
The event influences my communications within the nursing practice profoundly. It induced a sense of confidence and assertiveness that I was cut for this profession. As something I love dearly, nursing as a profession is something that I do to ensure that I help others. By having a positive and fruitful conversation with one of the patients leaves a mark of my contribution to the profession. This is fundamental leading me to believe that I am a force to reckon with even from the starting point of my career (Sibiya 2018). As a nurse to be, my primary role is to help other people by offering the best care possible and service delivery. Having been trained effectively, I understand and can recognize when a patient is suffering internally (Parker & Coiera 2000). Therefore, getting the patient to open up and take part in the healing process is my job by making them comfortable and to trust me as a human being to offer professional help.
Furthermore, the event has helped me sharpen my skills in communicating with different professionals within the health organization. By going to Dr. Murphy, I showed initiative to engaged actively in – service provision and care to the patients. This is proof enough of my commitment as a health profession and being in the right career (Coiera 2000). Also, I have gathered confidence on how to approach my superiors, communicate actively with them, and be part of the solution giver. In this case, I did not just present a problem to my supervisor, rather a solution and way forward to help the patient.
