Essay On Therapeutic Communication

Therapeutic communication is an interaction between a nurse/ healthcare worker and a patient that helps advance the physical and emotional health of the patient by using verbal and nonverbal communication. Therapeutic communication is an active process. This communication is an important part of building a healthy interpersonal relationship, explains "Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing" .Nurses, mental health professionals and other health care professionals use therapeutic communication to educate the patient or to elicit information for analysis. The nurse uses various strategies to help the patient express their ideas and feelings in a manner that establishes respect and acceptance. This, in turn, enhances the patient 's comfort levels, encourages a feeling of safety, and increases their trust in the nurse. That 's because good therapeutic communication helps the patient feel that someone truly

Open ended questions are a good way to obtain fuller information, rather than a closed ended question that requires more than a simple yes or no answer. This therapeutic communication technique is particularly useful when the nurse wants fuller and deeper information from the client and wants to know the patient’s feelings and beliefs about their current health situation. Closed ended questions are useful when the client is cognitively impaired or they are on mechanical ventilation with intubation and not able to speak with the nurse and others.

Nontherapeutic communication, like giving false reassurance or sympathy or just asking “why” questions, verbally or nonverbally, can make patients feel defensive. If we try to make assumptions about his/her feelings, we might jump to the wrong conclusions. Here are two examples of non-therapeutic communication: Changing the subject (interrupting/introducing a new topic), Giving unsolicited advice (telling the client what to do, making decisions for the client, implying that the client cannot handle his or her own life