The primary objective of a nursing profession is to enhance communal and family well-being. To achieve this objective, the nurses are required to have unique qualities to execute their professional duties. The conceptual framework pillars epitomize the core qualities of the nursing occupation. It is these nursing pillars that act as the backbone and support system for the professional growth of the nurses leading to success in their areas of work (Booker, Turbutt, & Fox, 2016). Without the strengthened pillars in the nursing foundation, the entire profession weakens and falls apart. The chief nursing pillars include care, communication, holism, professionalism, and critical thinking.
It is agreeable that one of the main pillars in delivering high-quality patient care is communication for both intra- and inter-team relationships and cohesion. When communication breaks down, staff are demoralized, they fail to deliver their work appropriately, codes of conduct are violated, the team grows dissatisfied at their workplace, and the results in poor service delivery and poor care to the patient (Myers, 2019). When there is communication failure , both the nursing professionals and the patients are dissatisfied. This makes communication a core pillar in the nursing profession. Therefore, a compassionate, universally clear, and coherent communication is genuinely critical to the very heart of the healthcare system.
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Communication Clarity and Compassion
The way a concept or information is packages for communication matters a lot in nursing. The following instances play a key role in determining responses from the client. And or whether a social worker is having a conversation with a patient and their family conveying cancer breaking news. Clarity in healthcare is necessary in every aspect of communication. Unclear instructions from a senior have great potential leading to unwanted results, and sometimes it could be deadly. The handing-off of a patient from a surgery session to urology service must be precisely transparent and seamless, and the patient data, chart, and verbal orders have to be 100$ unambiguous.
Clarity is necessary for team works and team meetings communications where nurses have discussions on topical issues.Failure to communicate in an effective way regarding mistakes or errors done by the staff members cause depression and feelings of unappreciation. A manager in a medical profession must learn to communicate with the nurses and other staff members effectively. For example, there has to be a clear structure of communication, a clear structure of reward and punishment (Wicks, & St Clair, 2007). Nurses are guided by code of conduct, and whenever something wrong happens, there is a clear guideline on how to react to every situation to prevent demoralizing the staff and to have a positive outcome for future cases.
The way bad news is communicated to a patient could determine a lot of things. Conveying bad news in a wrong way could make them emotionally disturbed, it could not go well with their family, and it could also make the patient look for alternatives elsewhere. Sometimes the management just needs to motivate, take time to encourage and motivate their staff as a way of communicating goodwill and an indication of worthiness.
Coherence
Coherence is the act of being consistent with systematic logic and quality. When communicating anything to a patient or a nurse, it is essential that the physician to be consistent at all times, inconsistencies may have negative consequences. A good illustration is a case of a nurse reporting to her supervisor about another nurse bullying a patient (Chu et al., 2018). The immediate response the supervisor gives to the reporting nurse could make or break the nurse. For example, the supervisor could decide to respond that the nurse abusing the patient is “too valuable,” and the nurse has to “accept and move on” is a perfect example of an incoherent message. The impact of this unified communication would be a negative one.
The nurses who get this feedback would begin wondering for themselves that if the nurse continues violating the patients and getting away with it every time, then it undermines patient care and team cohesion without any consequences (Valentijn et al., 2013). The nurses then start tolerating the bullying behavior from other nurses that are valuable to the hospital. The nurses begin to feel unsafe and vulnerable at their place of work. Insecure feeling is an illustration that where there is no coherence, the management saw a mistrust even in situations where trust is needed more than ever. Clear communication, compassion, and harmony is a true hallmark of healthy workplace culture (Aceto, Persico, & Pescapé, 2018). Every healthcare organization needs to create clarity, compassion, and coherence in healthcare-related communication.
Clarity, logic, and compassion skills can be learned and developed through groups and individual work, and the hospitals that are keen on creating forward-thinking in their cultures and patient care need to enhance communication in their sights. These can be achieved through workshops, training, and seminars on relational, emotional, and behavioral intelligence. It can also be enhanced through promoting intra- and inter-team communication, being motivated by not just the financial gains, expert consultations, advanced communication training for the executives and managers.
It is not difficult to achieve clear communication, compassionate, and coherent communication needs in healthcare institutions. However, it takes a courageous leader to make these kinds of values that are key to the raison d’etre of any healthcare organization. There are examples of healthcare institutions that have implemented effective communication strategies, and these are backed by a culture of coherent, clear, and compassionate communication strategies.
The contrast of patient and nurses’ satisfaction, the clinical outcomes, and the culture at the healthcare organizations would likely be stark. Such cynicism in such scenarios gives way to evangelism for the power of communication married with cohesion, compassion, and clarity. To effectively improve healthcare around the globe, there is no silver bullet. Yet, the success underpinnings and the greatly enhance outcomes, and the worker retention must be at least rooted partially in conscious communication.
Conclusion
In healthcare, it is widely agreeable that one of the main pillars in delivering high-quality patient care is communication. It is also generally agreed that communication is a primary pillar for both intra- and inter-team relationships and cohesion (Gleason et al., 2017). Effective communication in healthcare plays a crucial role throughout the entire healthcare experience for a patient, and a more significant part of the responsibility lies with the nurses. The nurses are responsible for relaying information to the physicians, patients, and other staff members. The nurses, therefore, must be in a position to communicate clearly, especially when there is stress. Excellent verbal and written communication in nursing is invaluable to all the care stakeholders. While nurses have an extensive knowledge base of medical practices and clinical practices, communication remains a significant challenge in their daily practices. Therefore, communication has to be considered more as a pillar to the nursing profession.
References
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Booker, C., Turbutt, A., & Fox, R. (2016). Model of care for a changing healthcare system: are there foundational pillars for design? Australian Health Review , 40 (2), 136-140.
Gleason, K. T., Davidson, P. M., Tanner, E. K., Baptiste, D., Rushton, C., Day, J., ... & Newman-Toker, D. E. (2017). Defining the critical role of nurses in diagnostic error prevention: a conceptual framework and a call to action. Diagnosis , 4 (4), 201-210.
Myers, D. L. (2019). Narrative of Black Older Women Communicating with Healthcare Professionals.
The Chu, C. H., Sorin-Peters, R., Sidani, S., De La Huerta, B., & McGilton, K. S. (2018). An interprofessional communication training program to improve nurses’ ability to communicate with stroke patients with communication disorders. Rehabilitation Nursing Journal , 43 (6), E25-E34.
Valentijn, P. P., Schepman, S. M., Opheij, W., & Bruijnzeels, M. A. (2013). Understanding integrated care: a comprehensive conceptual framework based on the integrative functions of primary care. International journal of integrated care , 13 .
Wicks, A. M., & St Clair, L. (2007). Competing values in healthcare: balancing the (un) balanced scorecard. Journal of Healthcare Management , 52 (5)
