I am a first year nursing student. I just finished the first half of my second clinical rotation and got my dreaded evaluation today. By the way I wasn't dreading it until I got it. I was told today that my communication skills leave something to be desired, that I tend to come off as disrespectful in tone and body language when I am not trying to. I was told that because of this I was construed as disrespectful to the hospital staff, students and my instructor. In the past these comments have been made to me and I thought that I had gotten better about it but I was apparently mistaken. Does any one have any tips for being more aware of my tone and body language and how to communicate therapeutically even when stressed out. I would very much appreciate any thing.
Thanks
Struggling Student
Francis
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March 27th, 2009 at 12:13 am
I am in my last semester of nursing school right now. We have to do group presentations each week. My group is presenting our presentation next week and our topic is “power and conflict” My part of the presentation is about verbal and nonverbal communication. I found a wonderful website which talks about both verbal and nonverbal communication which I used to make my powerpoint for my part of the presentation. I recommend checking out this website. I hope this helps you out. http://www.eruptingmind.com/people-skills/ Also some advice from myself. Just always remember that the patient always comes first. I always think to myself, ok what if that patient was my mom,dad,grandpa, or grandma…what kind of care would I give them, or how would I want to communicate with them. You have to really consider how you approach and communicate with different patients. Some patients are hurting both physically and psychologically. For instance one patient might have just found out their lung biopsy came back malignant for cancer and they have less than 6 months to live. But another patient just had a baby girl after they were told that would never have childred and they are the happiest you have ever been. Nursing is all about compassion, and most importantly taking care of that patient and what ever their particular need may be. It is tremendously important that you are able to communicate with different people in different ways; with the hopes of them leaving that hospital feeling better than they did when they came in. At times it does get very stressful. It helps for me to just stand back give myself a minute take a breather and try to just focus on the task I have at hand and give it my best shot. Also if you get overwhelmed its ok to ask for help from another member of your clinical group, or your instructor. Best of luck to you and your nursing school experience. I hope I was able to help!
March 27th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
that I tend to come off as disrespectful in tone and body language when I am not trying to. I was told that because of this I was construed as disrespectful to the hospital staff, students and my instructor.
The patient wasn’t bothered then?
Stuff the rest of them. 😉
Mostly people are annoyed when they think they aren’t being listened to… so…
Eye contact – not staring – but being attentive.
Keep your hands still and don’t fidget with anything when you’re listening.
Stand up straight or sit forward on your chair – don’t slouch.
Face the person at an slight angle and maintain good awareness of personal space. Not too far away to be ‘distanced’ – not too close to be invading.
Then there’s how to listen –
Don’t interrupt.
Shut up.
Listen.
Nod and give agreements where you agree.
If you don’t agree – nod where you think you should agree. Who cares – it’s a “pass” you want.
Wait till the pause comes for you to respond – and respond by acknowledging that you’ve heard what they’ve said and that you understood it – paraphrase and repeat their words as you explain and then give your comments after.
Avoid using emotional phrases – and use propoer English, not slang or facny words for the sake of it.
When talking – don’t overdo the eye- contact or you look like you’re drilling them
Use small hand gestures – and keep them ‘friendly’ – like open handed; don’t raise fists or point fingers.
As for tone –
Keep your breathing as normal as possible – so don’t stress this stuff ok?
If you find you’re getting short of breath or your tone.pitch us wandering – use shorter sentences and breath regularly (sounds daft but making you consciously aware of breathing is noticing something we take for granted)
Keeping your back straight helps to maintain tone – and project your voice well.
Avoid patronising tones – like when the voice goes up at the end of every sentence – drives me nuts!
Hope those help
March 28th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Keep in mind sometimes you can’t shake a rep, so I would do before your next clinical starts with you new instructor is I would have a meeting with them and tell them the kind of feedback that you have been getting, tell them you are making an effort to change and you would apreaciate her/his input through out the clinical instead of waiting until the end. Explain that your communication style is not representing what you are really thinking and that you would like them to help you in the process of changing. This way you have put it on the table and extended soem ownership of the problem to your instructor who is suppose to be helping you, not waiting until the end and dumping on you. Best ofluck.
Amy