Effective communications with people from diverse backgrounds .Discuss - Term Paper Example

In this paper, I will be sharing my personal clinical experience that involved initiating assertive and therapeutic communication to a 35-year-old female patient with Down syndrome. To start with, it shall be emphasized that diversity does not just focuses on the racial or cultural background of individuals. Diversity is “a condition of having or being composed of differing elements (variety); especially the inclusion of different types of people in a group or organization” (Merriam-Webster 2011).

Hence, patient diversity is the full range of human similarities and differences in group affiliation including gender, race/ethnicity, social class, role within an organization, age, religion, sexual orientation, physical ability, and other group identities (Borkowski 2011, p. 15). Good communication skills among nurses in dealing with diversity is a big factor for effective management. In the cycle of effective management that includes planning and preparing, listening and observing, assessment and decision making, questioning and probing, giving feedback, and reflection and evaluation, the nurse, oftentimes, experiences vulnerability, criticism, hostility and success which calls for assertive sense to meet all these challenges (Darley 2002, p. 4). Assertiveness comprises respect for other people, self-respect or self-esteem, self-awareness, and effective, clear and consistent communication.

Assertive communication is the key to communicating important messages to others that helps individuals to stand up for their rights, and when appropriate, the rights of others (the patient’s rights with the nurse acting as the patient advocate) (Sully & Dallas 2005, p. 94). Being assertive helps a person to avoid the feeling of guilt, anger, resentment, confusion, and loneliness, which leads to a more satisfying life (Zerwekh & Claborn 2006, p. 264). It is also important to note that assertiveness can also be projected through nonverbal communication.

According to Videbeck (2010, p. 107) nonverbal communication is the behavior a person exhibits while delivering verbal content which includes facial expression, eye contact, space, time, boundaries, and body movements. It conveys truthfulness because it involves the unconscious mind acting out emotions related to the verbal content, the situation, the environment, and the relationship between the speaker and the listener (Videbeck 2010, p. 108). In addition to effective communication, the nurse-patient relationship in health care setting is often at the interpersonal level, between two people only, in order to establish a therapeutic relationship that will benefit the client, even when the contact is brief.

A communication can be therapeutic if it is client-focused, purposeful, and time limited, where the nurse comes to know and respond to the client as a unique person and the client comes to trust the nurse. In this therapeutic relationship, the nurse is sensitive to the client’s feelings and needs, where both of them communicate comfortably with each other in times of intimate/sensitive nursing care or emotional significance (Funnell, Koutoukidis, & Lawrence 2009, p. 446). The nurse utilizes the “use of self” where he or she consciously and in full awareness uses his or her own self to establish relatedness and to structure nursing interventions.

Because of the nature of nurse-patient interaction in the course of nursing care