Ian McGraw
NURS 2460
13 April 2020
Blog 5
So far, this school year has been a rollercoaster experience for not only me but so many other college students. I do not think anyone prepares for a pandemic to cut their time at school short and cause virtual learning (and clinical) from home for the rest of the semester. With this unfortunate reality, my first nursing clinical semester was cut short, but that does not take away from all the extraordinary information and knowledge I have been able to apply into my student practice.
When speaking about therapeutic communication specifically, I have progressed much more than I could have ever expected from the start of this semester. To be honest, one of my biggest fears starting clinical was interacting with patients, nurses, PCA’s, and hopefully not to make major mistakes that would upset them. I know many people feel like this and instructors say that it gets better throughout the semester, then eventually you reach the end and feel like a completely different person. I was skeptical about this concept, until I have taken the last few weeks to reflect about how much I have changed in a short 10 weeks and it is incredible. My interaction with patients got so much better; I was able to ask them some open ended questions to help gain more insight on how they were feeling (emotionally, mentally, physically), I was able to establish professional relationships with them even if I was there for 6 hours, and I tried to make them feel as comfortable and safe as I could since they were not where they wanted to be… in a hospital. To accomplish these tasks, I have combined verbal and nonverbal communication techniques and made them congruent. For example, I have learned to speak in a slow, soothing tone, I have learned to avoid medical jargon, ask open-ended questions, and also how to talk “with” a patient not “at” them. Some nonverbal communication techniques include maintaining eye contact, communicating at patient’s level, having appropriate emotional facial expressions, and professional mannerisms. These techniques have helped me progress in my therapeutic communication skills.
Although there have been many positive practice techniques I have applied, there is always room for improvement in the clinical setting. One thing I am looking to improve is interacting with the nurses and PCA’s more; I have been more comfortable with the one on the floor, but I believe developing that relationship can become beneficial throughout my clinical time, and that communication can help benefit patients as well. Another technique is making a better transition when first interacting with my patients. This is something that is hard for me because I feel somewhat awkward when doing this, but after I do that everything is fine, so having a better first interaction is vital for me because that can make or break if a patient will be willing to develop a communicative relationship with me or not sometimes. The last thing I really want to focus on is my posture. Sometimes I tend to slouch or cross my arms; this can indicate me feeling uncomfortable in a certain situation (even though I usually am not), but I do not want to give off mixed signals, because that could cause stress to the patient or other nurses on the floor. These are three specific techniques I believe are my biggest points of improvement for upcoming clinical.
Like stated earlier, this semester has been anything but standard/ordinary. Having the last three hospital clinical taken away is not fun because I could really see my improvement and actually felt like a nurse. With that being said, I cannot take away from how much I have learned throughout the semester and this is definitely where I believe the start of my nursing career has begun.