At the beginning of the semester, it was a goal of mine to become more proactive in my efforts to work on my communication in a healthcare setting. This involved working on my communication with my patient, my nurse, my PCA, and my clinical instructor. In terms of patient communication, this is where I felt the most comfortable. I generally have a very friendly demeanor and I knew that I had strong communication skills when it came to working with older adults. I was generally extremely comfortable talking with my patients since I would go into their room with a plan and was not shy about admitting that I would not be the best person to answer certain questions, but I was prompt with their requests and utilized a lot of skills from therapeutic communication when my patients would express concern or anxiety to me.
In terms of communicating with my PCA and nurse, this required a little more work. At the beginning of the semester, I lacked confidence that I now have. I wasn’t great about being proactive in asking them if they needed help and my verbal communication with the nurse about a patient’s condition would sometime be jumbled or confusing. As the semester went on and I learned some of these communication skills (SBAR, etc) and gained confidence, it became much easier to communicate with the nurses and PCAs that I used to find intimidating. By the end of the semester, I was asking people if they needed help with anything and communicating regularly with my nurses about changes in my patient or unusual vital signs.
In the future, I would like to continue to improve on my confidence. As I mentioned, when I get nervous sometimes my words come out very jumbled and I can’t get my point across. Seeing myself already improve regarding my verbal communication has shown me that I can continue to grow in this area. In terms of my nonverbal communication, I would like to present myself as more confident than I might be in front of my patients. Some of them would say things like, “oh, you seem a little nervous” and the last thing I want is for my patient to be concerned with whether or not I know what I’m doing. Taking deep breaths and continuing to enter my patients’ rooms with a plan will help me relax, trust my knowledge, and build on my nonverbal communication.