Communication and the Health Care: Face to Face

Communication is a very important word for the health care field to respect. As a nurse, working among the public is one aspect of their duties. I have been a nurse for over 15 years. For the last 3 years, I have chosen to not work with patients. I audit charts, and I absolutely love my job. I have been through many situations where communication was the main factor, involving a terminally ill family member, several of which are appalling.

When family members present nurses with health care questions, it is in the best interest of the nurse to place their full attention to the question. Usually questions are basic nursing matters that can be answered easily. I think what stumps nurses, is if they are presented with questions, from another nurse who is a family member, that delve deeper than basic skills. The messages from that angle start becoming intelligent communication between the questioning family member and the health care worker. These are questions that must be carefully answered with thoughtful and knowing, words.

The number one key is attention to the subject matter at hand. Instead of simply asking, “How long of a recovery period are we thinking about?” which the family members knows, can be restated as, “He has been through surgery, what plan of recovery are we thinking about?” That is a long question, delving deeper than the time period of recovery from surgery. “He is a very sick man,” does not indicate caring or empathy whatsoever.

Let’s look at the attention factor. Attention requires practice. One cannot project attention to a family member, without preparation. By preparing mannerisms and ways of speaking, intelligent words will flow naturally. I suggest that all health care providers read Eckert Tolle’s “A New Earth,” and use the exercises in the book. The attention will occur out of habit. Once the habit is obtained, one example being, look at things without labeling them, it will be a natural behavior. Attention is a behavior that all health professionals need to grasp.  If attention is never acquired, yet the education required to be a nurse is obtained, then a nurse should look elsewhere for professions. The behavior of attention, then empathy, is secondary to learning the major bones in the body. Learn the bones, and then concentrate on the correct words to say to an educated person when asked about the skeletal system.

This is one of my scenarios; it occurred in the summer of 2008, in a hospital in Osage Beach, Missouri. I had not disclosed that I was a nurse for over 15 years, licensed in 2 states, and IV certified. I never said that my job was to train LPN’s on the floor. I certainly didn’t disclose my present position, which is to audit charts, (scares them every time, I think it’s kind of funny). I usually wait to tell a nurse what I do, after they have completely finished explaining themselves.

I questioned the charge nurse of a hospital in Osage Beach, Missouri.  My father had been admitted, for over 48 hours, “I noticed that his O2 STATs have been running 85.  What is your plan of action?”  The nurse, who has been a nurse for however long, is sitting at the nurse’s station, answered, “He’s a very sick man.” Then I stated, “I realize he is sick. What are his labs?” And the nurse stated with a smile, “I don’t know. I have to get his chart.” I could see that his chart was behind her, and it was at this moment that I said, “You should’t answer a family member in such a way. You should have said, ‘I will get his chart.’” The answer was not a smart mouthed retort. It was out of habit, training LPN’s on the floor. Then I explained my background, and she was dumbfounded, and replied, “Oh my, I will get his chart.”

Had full attention been paid to the question at the time, “He is a very sick man,” would never had been the first answer. I received “He is a very sick man” answer many times at the same hospital. And each time, I corrected them. Attention is the key. With the correct attention, the question can be answered in an intelligent manner. All I wanted to do was to have a look in his chart, and see his labs. This is not against HIPPA. The DPOA has a right do this.

In this article, I  have supplied ideas, ways of gaining attentive skills, and ways of stating sentence structure around educated, and for that matter, uneducated family members. To avoid problems, I suggest that every nurse find ways of applying these skills. Articles like this would not need to be written.