Importance of Interaction Skills in Nursing
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Importance of Interaction Skills in Nursing
The term communication has various meaning depending upon the type of context in which it is used. Everyone has different opinions and views that can be influenced by many factors. “Many factors which influences the communication process. Some of these are development, gender, values, and perception, personal space, territoriality, roles and relationship, congruence and attitudes” (Kozier etal., 2010, p. 390). I had an interview with my peer as required by PNUR 103 course. There were several factors which was influencing our interview. The most important ones were environment, gender, and personal space.
The room selected for the interview was really small and congested for me to talk. I am kind of a person who easily gets nervous when I have to say something in front of the teacher. This was my first interview of this kind in a close room and not having privacy talk with my client. Hence, it was interfering for me throughout the interview. I was already anxious and nervous. The room was having one table and three chairs around it. The atmosphere in the room was dull with not sufficient lightening. Also, the “tick-tick” noise of alarm was increasing my heart beats and made me more conscious. Temperature extremes, excessive noise, and poorly ventilated environment can all interfere with communication (Kozier etal., 2010, p. 392). Thus, our interview was influenced by all these environment distractions. But, I tried to provide my client security and privacy by letting him know that whatever information he will share with me in this room will be private and confidential. However, I pretended that this was a hospital setting and my peer is client for whom I should me more concerned than any other distraction.
Gender difference was also played key role for my interview. My client was a male and it was matter of concern for me because I didnt know his thinking style or communication pattern as well. “Girls tend to use language to seek confirmation, minimize differences, and establish intimacy. Boys use language to establish independence and negotiate status within group” (Kozier etal., 2010, p. 391). So, as female and male communication styles are different it was difficult for me to understand him. Most of the times during the interview he gave me short answers in spite of asking him open-ended question. So, it was getting complicating for me to explain him in a way that he can understand it. Moreover, his non verbal responses like facial expression and his eye movement were hard for me to interpret. I come from an orthodox family where I didnt have more experience of interpreting male genders communication technique. As I am a shy person it was little uncomfortable initially at the start of the interview to talk with male gender person in close room. But, as interview went on everything was in good health. So, it was good experience of its kind.
The distance between me and my client was between 0.5 to 1.3m. According to book Kozier it falls in category of personal distance. “More of the person is perceived at a personal distance so that nonverbal behaviors, such as body stance or full facial expressions, are seen with less distortion. Much communication between nurses and clients happen at this distance” (Kozier etal., 2010, p. 391). So, it was comfortable distance between me and my client. I was able to have complete vision of his body movement, any limb gestures, and facial expressions. However I was not able to see my teachers expression or gestures completely as she was sitting on my right side. The distance was more convenient as we both were able to hear and share thoughts and feelings easily. However, as I said for me it was still little awkward since I come from the background where this distance between opposite sex considered close and intimating. But, the client made it more relaxed for me by smiling and maintaining proper distance with me.
I realized that all the factors like sitting in the close room with male client at close distance were interrelated to each other and influenced my interview at some point or other.
A communication skill is an asset to human. They have variety of words, symbols, gestures, and language to explain meaning of their thoughts i.e. verbal and nonverbal responses. I think as a student nurse it is really necessary to know integral aspect of interaction with a client and professional team members. For therapeutic conversation between nurse and client, I used various techniques from the book Kozier like Establishing rapport, SOLAR, Probing, Clarification, Reflecting feelings and Terminating the exchange.
“Therapeutic communication between the nurse and the client is a goal-directed and can promote understanding between them” (Kozier etal., 2010, p.392.) So, use to this communication in the interview setting, at the beginning of conversation I used “Establishing rapport”. Since, it sets the tone of rest of the conversation; I tried to open relationship with sharing name, role to client, and shook hand. According to Kozier, an interview has three phases opening, body and closing. I thinks I used all the techniques wisely and properly to shape all three phases properly.