Personal Reflection Of A Therapeutic Communication In Hospital

I had a clinical day at the rehabilitation unit at the University of Utah hospital. There was a situation that challenged my therapeutic communication skills. The client was a 24-year old female who was wheeling around in her wheelchair when the nurses were gathering for shift change. I walked into the unit and was waiting to be assigned to a nurse for the day near the front of the unit. This is when the client wheeled up to me, asked who I was, and stated she was having a difficult morning. A nurse watched me talk to her and later explained she has autism and had been hospitalized in the rehab unit for over two months from a motor vehicle accident where her best friend died, and she was severely injured. The client clearly expressed her main concern was being discharged from the hospital. She had become acquainted with the hospital setting and formed relationships with her health care team, especially the nurses and aids. The client verbally and physically expressed she was unhappy about terminating the relationships she had formed at the hospital. At the end of the interaction she did seem slightly excited to be getting to go home to her mother. Looking back and assessing this interaction, I can see a few communication techniques I

I used touch and restatement/paraphrasing properly; I believe I could have used silence to give her time to say anything else that was bothering her and could have incorporated more minimal cues to encourage the client to continue to speak. I accidently gave the client false reassurance, which should be avoided in future interactions. In addition, I gave some nonverbal facial expressions that were opposite of therapeutic. This interaction made me appreciate the value of therapeutic communication. I would like to continue to practice and challenge myself to implement appropriate communication strategies as often as