Communication Skills in Mental Health Nursing - Term Paper Example

Communication Skills in Mental Health Nursing Name Institutional Affiliation Introduction Communication in the sense of mental health nursing remains a fundamental component of the therapeutic intervention. The knowledge, as well as skills that a nurse and other medical practitioners use to communicate, are important aspects of assisting or helping the individual living under mental health distress or problem through developing and maintaining a significant client-nurse relationship. In ensuring efficient and appropriate communication with the patient, it is required of the mental health nurse to make use of a number of significant communication as well as engagement skills with the patients, the surrounding carers and any other persons who are part and parcels of their care (Maguire & Pitceathly, 2002). This essay examines or elaborates more on both non-verbal and verbal communication skills that are essential in establishing a good rapport, developing a shared understanding of the problems experienced by the patients who has a co-occurring mental health disorder and substance use disorder. In addition, the paper also boils down in evaluating the therapeutic use by the health care professional of either motivational interviewing, brief behavioural as well as cognitive approaches as part of the mutually agreed management plan. Body For over the years, communication has been affirmed as one of the core attributes of in terms of clinical leadership in the nursing profession. Communication skills are a central part to a mental health practitioner’s ability to form a sound and conscious therapeutic alliance with the mentally ill patients. In the field of mental health nursing, communication skills which are also commonly referred to as interpersonal relationships form the core of every intervention. In the present world, good or effective communication skills are what every person is specialising in mental health profession need to develop to ensure that health care services are significantly offered to the patients (Morrissey, Callaghan & IVONNE, 2011). These skills remain the building blocks or the basic techniques as well as principles in which every person engaging in nursing or clinical practice in the field of mental health care needs to work towards achieving in order to be proficient in nursing and clinical practices (Duffy, Gordon, Whelan, Cole-Kelly & Frankel, 2004). In ensuring good rapport ad common understanding with mental health disorder patients, it is of the essence to elaborate on the common principles that provide support to the communication skills of the medical practitioner and the patient. Such principles are critical in enabling workforce development among the nurses or any other staff in social care for mentally ill patients. The common principles provide for a basis of general understanding or communication relevant in promoting good mental health as well as identifying signs of mental illness among the suffering individuals (Timmins, McCabe & McSherry, 2006). First, the principle of listening remains one of the most valuable skills yet the most challenging. This principle involves making use of various nonverbal as well as verbal communications. Mental health nurses worry about what to say or ask without emotionally and psychologically harming the patient (Morrissey, 2015). Nurses should avoid talking too much and embrace listening as this hinders the listening skills. Most of the medical practitioners think that they are not doing enough by just listening to the patient that is contrary to what is required. Mentally ill patients value being listened to and have a chance to tell their side of the story. Not paying attention to them would mean jeopardizing the communication process which might result in poor rapport and understanding. In order to ensure that listening is effective and efficient, nurses should tune out any external distractions including background noises, give full attention by focusing on what the patient is saying, and providing enough time for the patient to tell his or her story. By achieving this, patients consequently feel cared, loved and accepted, help them to connect with other people, feel less isolated and establish a sense of trust with their personal nurses (Hegarty & Walker, 2010). Second, the principle of paraphrasing which involves expressing patients’ message and information in your words is also an important aspect in promoting proper communication. Paraphrasing in the case of mental health care shows or proves to the patient that he or she was being listened to and has been understood. Such makes the ill mental patients feel supported and valued. However, mental health nurses should ensure that during paraphrasing they do not change or alter the primary meaning of the text. Instead, they should use different wording with the same meaning to communicate the original text( Imrie, 2015). Third is the principle of summarizing which may confuse a little bit the principle of paraphrasing. In this principle, the medical practitioner offers the patient with a précis or rather a summary of the story of information the patient has given. Summarizing is an appropriate principle especially in situations where the patient has given you much information which might be as a result of distress (McKay, Wood, Brantley & Marra, 2007). Providing a summary of the information provided helps the patient to identify the key areas where much emphasis should be focused. In addition, it assures the mentally ill patient that the mental health nurse has heard and understood clearly and correctly. Summary also helps or gives the client in this case the patient a chance to correct any wrong information or misunderstanding and as well further elaborate on main points of the information provided. By making use of the principle of summary, the patients do not only develop trust in whoever is taking care of them but also ensures that there is a good rapport between the two parties. On the other hand, summary it helps the mental health care nurses to have a clear understanding of what is going on with the patient thus exhibiting exceptionally working standards (McCabe & Timmins, 2006). Fourth, the principle of questioning follows as one of the significant factors in communication. Under this principle, the most effective form of questions is the open ended which are commonly used to invite a full descriptive response. Open questions may comprise of the effective questions behavioural questions and cognitive questions. Unlike the open-ended questions, closed-ended questions limit the patient’s options and usually give the option of either a yes or no response. Such questions should be avoided since they possess limited values and usually discourage dialogue which is a critical aspect of mental health treatment. Learning to make use of appropriate questions ensures that mental health nurse is able to catch every important detail from the patient that would, in turn, be used in his or her treatment (Barker, 2012). Behavioural approaches help in pointing out the main signs of mental health disorder as well as distress that are important in handling and managing the mental illness on patients. Such signs may include being unusually angry or sad, depression or low mood, suicidal thoughts or self-harm, unusual thinking or obsession, impaired decisions, excited behaviours for no important reason among other signs. Individuals who are mentally ill require care ad support through the problems they are experiencing such as distress and crisis (Ong, De Haes, Hoos, & Lammes, 1995). Such persons may feel not part of the society as they perceive as being different from the rest of the community. Understanding their signs of mental illness could help transform people’s thoughts, moods, behaviour, and feelings towards the patients (Chant, Randle, Russell, & Webb, 2002). It is of great importance that people working in health care centres exhibit an understanding of such signs so as they can point out if individuals whether individuals they are caring for need adjustments in terms of their care as well as support. By understanding the signs of mental illness, the nurses are able to manifest sensitive and appropriate approaches towards handling their condition (MacNeela et al. 2010). In addition, this helps the nurses not to make assumptions on what patients are suffering from thus they apply the required manner of communication that may not be of harm either psychologically or emotionally to the patients (Bensing, 1991). Being able to communicate clearly with a patient is an important aspect as it helps understand how the victim feels and consequently make sure that there are no misunderstandings in regard to communication. When communicating with a mentally ill person, the nurses should take into account the culture and communication skills appropriate for the patient, consider any difficulties in second language, hearing or even visual problem, keep away from jargon or vocabularies, maintaining facial expressions among other factors (Hearnden, 2008). It is important to understand the importance entwined with good mental health as well as wellbeing and more importantly manifest good knowledge on how to promote patients who need care and support. Nurses should understand that mental health is all about how each of us thinks our individual outlook on life and persons can cope with the rising life issues (Carson et al. 1999). Social health care workers need to understand the various factors that can support as well as promote the good mental status and be in a position to communicate such aspects to any individuals who need the care and support. Nurses should, therefore, be able to make use of appropriate motivational interviewing which ensures that nurses are able to drive the patients into speaking out their feelings, concerns or problems, help the patients remain physically active and have enough sleep, talk the patients into eating and drinking according to the prescription, and help the patients understand that it is normal to experience changes in life but that does not mean the end of life (Lipczynska, 2011). This helps the nurses to draft the most appropriate approaches when it comes to dealing with the mentally ill persons. This is a critical aspect that assists the nurses understand and have the morale as well as a common understanding of the patients’ situation. Patients who are well taken care of usually tend to profess good rapport towards their caregivers which significantly impacts the process of care and support (Prema, 2006). Conclusion To conclude, the essay has looked into various principles that promote communication among the mentally ill patients and the medical practitioners. The above-discussed skills are essential in any operation aimed at providing care and support to patients suffering from substance abuse and mental illness disorder. It is, however, not enough to only learn the skills and principles towards effective communication skills; instead, such knowledge should be integrated in day to day mental and substance abuse care services (Nicol et al. 2012). The paper provides a useful framework to help identify as well as clarify the important skills helpful in developing communication skills as a mental health practitioner. References Barker, P. (2012). Psychiatric and mental health nursing: The craft of caring (2nd ed.). London: Oxford University Press. Bensing, J. (1991). Doctor-patient communication and the quality of care. Social science & medicine, 32(11), 1301-1310. 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