The readings from literature regarding the relevance of clear and therapeutic communication between the nurse and the patient have impacted greatly on various aspects of my nursing practice. The readings are relevant in changing or supplementing my understanding and perception of moral and legal responsibilities regarding the essence of clarity and meaningfulness of therapeutic communication and issues that need to be addressed through such communication. This paper is a review of the legal and moral implications derived from the three articles presented in the literature review section. Further from the articles, I am able to derive my rights and obligations as a nurse as well as change my values, ethics and actions in regard to the guidelines of these articles.
From the three articles I understand that I have a moral responsibility of initiating, guiding and maintaining communication with patients as a way of achieving a therapeutic goal of health care. Through the placebo and nacebo effect as described by Cox (2006) , I have a moral obligation of using simple statements in reassuring manner to instill a positive attitude towards a particular drug among my patients. I also has a legal responsibility of ensuring that therapeutic communication with my patient does not simply end at my level but cuts across the entire clinical administration in such a way that prior to making critical decisions regarding an intervention towards a patient, I should first of all engage in inter-professional communication for such decisions to be valid, sound and informed. This would be helpful in avoiding common errors that often arise in intensive care unit and other critical departments of the hospital ( Gotlib Conn et al., 2012 ). I also have a legal and moral responsibility of ensuring minimal ethical dilemmas in my practice as a nurse. According to Pavlish et al., (2013) , most ethical dilemmas arise as a result of miscommunication between the nurse and a patient as well as amongst the nurses.
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Information contained in the article by Cox (2006) is important in improving my understanding of my own rights and obligations as a nurse. Cox suggests the need to initiate a personalized communication with patients with an aim of achieving therapeutic goals of health care. It is also my right and obligation to initiate Interprofessional communication with nurses and the administration especially if a crucial decision has to be made concerning the patients’ health. Ethically, it is my obligation to protect patients at all times using my skills as a nurse. Interprofessional communication has been confirmed to prevent potential harm to the patients ( Gotlib Conn et al., 2012). Therefore, Interprofessional communication is a means of preventing harm to the patient. It is also my right to prevent any act that would lead to ethical dilemma in my practice as a nurse. Clear communication substantially eliminates such dilemmas (Pavlish et al., 2013). By engaging in therapeutic communication with patients, staff and administration, I would be avoiding common ethical dilemmas in my nursing practice.
These readings have transformed my values and ethics as a nurse in different ways. For instance, what I used to perceive as wrong in the delivery of health care services to patients has been found to be professionally acceptable. While I have always held the view that personalized communication with patients is unethical, literature has proven otherwise. In the same way, what I thought to be the sole responsibility of psychologists and counselors can as well be accomplished by myself as a nurse. Lastly, I never knew that meaningful communication in the hospital situation is responsible for elimination of ethical dilemmas. From the review of literature, I have changed my understanding of the role of communication in eliminating such dilemmas. Meaningful and therapeutic communication in tight hospital setting is potentially beneficial and ethically acceptable.
References
Cox, E. D. (2006). Relationships and decision making in pediatric primary care.
Gotlib Conn, L., Reeves, S., Dainty, K., Kenaszchuk, C., & Zwarenstein, M. (2012). Interprofessional communication with hospitalist and consultant physicians in general internal medicine: a qualitative study. BMC health services research , 12 , 437.
Pavlish, C., Brown-Saltzman, K., Fine, A., & Jakel, P. (2013, September). Making the call: a proactive ethics framework. In HEC forum (Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 269-283). Springer Netherlands.
