Why Effective Communication Is Important for Nursing
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 conclusion is drawn from this.
Communication and Its Importance
Childs, Coles and Marjoram (2009) said that communication is a form of human interaction – and the process of meaning and understanding that associates with it – during which messages are exchanged between individuals and other individuals/groups before they are interpreted or comprehended by their recipients.
This is said to be the basis of all human interaction (Porritt, 1984) and therefore can have life-changing effects on the individuals involved (Crawford & Brown, 2004; Sheldon, 2009).
Communication is often studied from different levels. From social-interactive perspective, communication is believed to occur on two levels: the relationship level and the content level . The relationship level describes how two communicating parties are linked to each other and the content level describes the choice of words, languages and other information and how they are exchanged and interpreted by the participants(Watzlawick, Beavin and Jackson, 1967; in Sheldon 2009).
On the other hand, from the perspective of how it is delivered, effective communication is often studied in two parts: verbal communication and non-verbal communication (Porritt, 1984; Scammell,
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 conclusion is drawn from this.
Communication and Its Importance
Childs, Coles and Marjoram (2009) said that communication is a form of human interaction – and the process of meaning and understanding that associates with it – during which messages are exchanged between individuals and other individuals/groups before they are interpreted or comprehended by their recipients.
This is said to be the basis of all human interaction (Porritt, 1984) and therefore can have life-changing effects on the individuals involved (Crawford & Brown, 2004; Sheldon, 2009).
Communication is often studied from different levels. From social-interactive perspective, communication is believed to occur on two levels: the relationship level and the content level . The relationship level describes how two communicating parties are linked to each other and the content level describes the choice of words, languages and other information and how they are exchanged and interpreted by the participants(Watzlawick, Beavin and Jackson, 1967; in Sheldon 2009).
On the other hand, from the perspective of how it is delivered, effective communication is often studied in two parts: verbal communication and non-verbal communication (Porritt, 1984; Scammell,