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This semester has been crazy in relation to clinical. Following COVID-19 changes, we have moved from in-person clinical to online without any interactions with patients. Referring to in-patient scenarios, I feel like I have improved greatly in my communication with patients, nurses, my peers, and my clinical instructor. The number one thing I have improved on is confidence. Confidence is a greatly important factor in communication because it affects how patients perceive your interactions. The first time I went into a patient’s room, I was extremely nervous and probably did not do a great job of making my patient feel comfortable and confident in my skills. I also think I have improved on my non-verbal communication skills. I always try to think about what my body language communicates to the patient. I have learned to stand with my arms open and uncrossed and make myself open to whatever the patient’s needs are.

Despite seeing a lot of growth throughout the semester, there are still a few areas of communication I am looking to improve on in the future. One of these is moving the conversation away from strictly medicine and the patient’s condition. It is easy as a nursing student to focus so hard on what you are technically supposed to be doing in the patient’s room and getting in and out as quickly as possible. However, it is a great thing to remember that patients often would love to have conversations about something outside of their care, and nursing students are some of the best people to have that conversation with. To improve on this, I would make sure to ask the patient about other things in their lives that are important to them, including family, hobbies, their jobs, and their life at home.

I decided to watch the second episode of Grey’s Anatomy (which I have not seen in a very long time). Although the show is a drama, the show still demonstrates relationships between patients and healthcare providers. In this episode, Izzy, an intern, goes to the parking lot to help two Asian women who speak broken english. They insist on staying outside to avoid getting in trouble for being illegal citizens. One of the women has a large cut on her forehead that requires stitches. One positive form of communication I saw through this interaction was Izzy’s use of hand gestures. Since the women could not understand her well, she used gestures to point to the wound when she was talking about it. She also spoke slowly and at a normal volume to be respectful and to help them understand her better. I think this method of communication is important culturally as well as for general respect. It is not culturally respectful to speak louder than you normally would when someone does not understand what you are saying because of a language barrier, this will not help them understand better. However, they may make them feel bad for not speaking perfect English. Izzy does a thorough assessment of the patient in the rain and makes sure to reassure them that they are going to be ok. I think that reassurance is a great tactic for healthcare providers to build trust between the patient and them. The patient seems less afraid after Izzy says this. Many patients are very afraid when they come to the hospital, so taking the time to reassure them that they are in the best care is very important.

Clinical has been a challenging, yet great experience for me so far. In just 3 weeks, I’ve grown with my communication with patients, nurses, PCAs and my fellow students a lot. However, one challenge for me has been turning the conversation with patients away from just medical situations. In the PCU, patients have been there often for several days and are most likely tired of hearing the same medical jargon over and over. I think I contribute to this challenge because I often feel really nervous in patient rooms, so I try to focus on what I am supposed to be doing, like taking their vitals. So then, I will end up just talking to them about their vitals. I had one conversation two weeks ago in clinical that gave me a little confidence to start having more relatable conversations with the patient. The patient mentioned that his grandson was a football player at Georgia Tech, the same school my sister goes to, so I mentioned that my sister also goes to the same school. This then launched a conversation about his very large family and the colleges they attend. I feel like having a little point of connection between me and the patient allowed him to open up and get his mind off of his condition while he has a break between assessments and exams. This is something I will keep in mind for the future when having conversations with patients to get their minds off of their current situation. He seemed very happy to tell me about himself and I was very happy to listen.

For this week’s blog post I decided to observe the interactions and types of communication I saw at a weekly chapter for my sorority. Although they are not strangers to me, I thought it would be interesting to watch how my sorority sisters interact with one another during our 30-minute meeting. While walking into the house and greeting one another I saw one girl walk up to another and give her a hug, which is one of the most intimate forms of non-verbal communication. To me, a hug communicates real friendship and the human want to be close to one another. Usually, people tend to shake hands when they first meet and hug after they already know each other. Shaking hands is a formal greeting I wouldn’t use with someone who is a good friend, and I think it’s interesting that humans have used the hug as a greeting reserved for people who are bonded or already know one another. Aside from non-verbal communication, verbal communication is the most obvious form of communication to observe. Another interaction I witnessed was between two girls who had just sat down next to one another. One greeted the other and the other did not look up from her phone when she said hello. Seeing it from a third-person perspective, I felt like not looking at someone while greeting them is very rude. It made me realize that this type of interaction probably happens more often than we realize. Being distracted by your phone while someone is trying to have a conversation with you is one of the least effective ways to communicate. It is disappointing to me how many people do this, myself included. It made me realize I need to put my phone down and make sure to make eye contact while someone is talking to me, and it is probably something all of us could work on. I really liked this assignment. Although I was just at my own house, observing the 150 girls around me to see how they communicate was something I hadn’t thought to do before. I will definitely be doing more people watching from now on.

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