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Essay on Why Effective Communication Is Important for Nursing

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Why Effective Communication is Important for Nursing

This essay is set to explore the importance of developing effective communication skills in nursing. It will give a short overview on what communication is and what it involves. Then it will explain the importance of effective communication in nursing. Furthermore, the essay will briefly present some challenges surrounding communication in nursing and suggestions on how they can be addressed before it concludes by summarising the needs for nursing students to develop effective communication skills.

No original research was carried out specifically for this short essay. This is a literature review on a series of research papers and books that cover this particular subject and a …show more content…

The last decade of research provides clear evidence for improved patient satisfaction being associated with better health professionals’ communication and some additional evidence for additional outcomes – including patient adherence to doctors’ recommendations and improved health during the period. Outcomes beyond patient satisfaction are less often measured but instead are inferred based on patients’ intentions to follow recommendations or brief follow-up calls to find out the degrees to which the recommendations were followed(Duggan, 2006; Bach & Grant, 2009).

Health professionals’ improved communication behaviours are often associated with increased patient disclosure about social or emotional aspects of illness, and their minimal encouragement followed expressions of patient concern (Duggan & Parrott, 2001; Duggan, 2006).

It is also worth pointing out that improved communication also has positive effects on the health professionals themselves as studies also provide evidences to support that those health professionals who more effectively satisfy patients’ expectations for care also may improve their own clinical competence and therefore their own well-being (Duggan 2006).

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