Communication Principles
Goal
Students will be able to understand the principles of communication and enhance
awareness of values and ethics in nurse –client relationship
Intended Learning Outcomes of the Course (ILOs)
1. Attributes:
The student is:
1.1. A critical thinker.
1.2. A culturally oriented person.
1.3. An effective health educator/communicator.
1.4. Establishing professional therapeutic interactions with patient/client and takes on
an advocacy role during their interactions with the health care system.
2. Knowledge and understanding:
2.1 . Explaining the major principles of communication
2.2. Identifying the ethical standards in the communication process
2.3. Defining efficiency, appropriateness and flexibility.
2.4. Describing the main criteria of communication competency.
3. Practical and Clinical Skills:
3.1. Practicing the skills that enhancing the communication competency.
3.2. Using informal and formal methods of teaching appropriate to the patient/client
learning abilities.
4. Intellectual Skills:
4.1. Assessing the main criteria of communication competency
4.2. Distinguishing the five ethical standards that influence our communication and
guide our behavior.
4.3. Differentiating between appropriateness and efficiency
5. General and Transferable Skills:
The graduate must be able to:
5.1. Considering the five ethical standards that influence our communication and
guide our behavior.
5.2. Applying communication skills in interprofessional, social and therapeutic
context.
5.3. Using information technology.
5.4. Using problem solving skills.
6. Attitude
6.1. Communicating with patient/client with a respect for different values,
cultures, intellectual levels and emotional states.
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Content:
-Communication principles
-Criteria of communication competency
-Skills needed to enhance communication competency
Communication principles
There are several principles that guide the communication process:
1- Communication has Purpose:
When people communicate with one another, they have a purpose for doing so.
The purpose of a given communication may be serious or trivial, but one way to
evaluate the success of the communication is to ask whether it achieved its purpose or
not.
2- Communication is Continous:
Because communication is verbal as well as nonverbal, there are always sending
behavioral messages from which others draw inferences or meaning. Even silence or
absence are communication behaviors if another person infers meaning from them. The
skilled communicator need to be aware of the messages, whether explicit or implicit
that are constantly sending to others.
3- Communication Messages Vary in Conscious Encoding
Sharing meaning with another person involves encoding messages into verbal
and nonverbal symbols. This encoding process may occur spontaneously, may be based
on scripted messages that have been learned from past experiences to be appropriate
for the situation. When the communication reflects a spontaneous expression of
emotion, the messages of this communication are encoded without much conscious
thought.
4- Communication is Relational
In any communication setting people not only share content meaning but also
negotiate their relationship. Two aspects of relationships can be negotiated during an
interaction. One aspect is the affect (love or hate) present in the relationship. Another
aspect of the relational nature of communication seeks to define who is in control. The
control aspect of relationships can be viewed as complementary or asymmetrical. In a
complementary relationship the communication messages of one person may assert
dominance while the communication messages of other person accepts the assertion. In
asymmetrical relationship people don’t agree about who is in control. As one person
shown a need to take control, the other challenges the person's right and asserts his or
her power. In complementary relationship open conflict is less prevalent than in
symmetrical once, but in symmetrical relationship power is more likely to be evenly
shared.
5- Communication is Culturally Bound:
What message is formed and how it is interpreted depends on the cultural background
of the participants. Cultural diversity, variation between and among people, affects
every aspect of communication. The most widely discussed aspects of cultural diversity
are ethnicity and race, gender, age, sexual orientation, social class, education, and
religious differences among people.
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6- Communication has Ethical implications:
In any encounter we choose whether or not we will communicate ethically.
Ethics is a set of moral principles or standards that may be held by a society, a group,
or an individual. To understand how our ethical standards influence our communication
we must recognize the ethical principles guiding our behavior there are five ethical
standards influence our communication and guide our behavior. These standandards
are:
- Truthfulness and Honesty: They are standards that compel the person to refrain
from lying, cheating, stealing, or deception
- Integrity: Means maintaining a consistency of belief and action (keeping
promises).
- Fairness: means achieving the right balance of interests without regard to one's
own feelings and without showing favor to any side in a conflict. Fairness implies
lack of bias.
- Respect: means showing regard or consideration for a person and for that person's
rights.
- Responsibility
means being accountable for one's actions. A responsibility is something that one is
bound to do either thought promise or obligation or because of one's role in a group
orcommunity.
7- Communication is learned
Because communication appears to be a natural, inborn, unchangeable behavior,
we seldom try to improve our skills however inadequate they may be. But
communication is learned. Thus, we can, improve our communication skills and
increase our communication competence.
The main criteria of communication competency:
1. Efficiency
The components of efficient messages are simplicity, clarity, and correct timing.
Clumsy language and irrelevent information may prevent others from understanding.
Proper timing is also important. It is best to give messages when the other person is
able to hear them, and when the other person can interpret them without undue haste,
and when there are no intervening noises or inputs.
2. Appropriateness:
Messages are appropriate when they are fit and relevent to the situation.
Communication can also be affected by the amount and rate of sensory input
received. Exceeding a tolerance level is called overload. A person who is
overloaded by too many messages cannot handle incoming messages. Underload
occurs when delay or lack of information interferes with a person’s ability to
comprehend the message of another.
3- Flexibility
To be flexible, a person must have the ability to set new priorities and to move to meet
immediate goals. Lack of flexibility manifests itself as either exaggerated control or
exaggerated permissiveness.
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4- Feedback
It is the process by which performance is checked and malfunctions corrected. Content
that elicits anxiety, fear, shame, or any of several other strong emotions is likely to
hamper feedback. (feedback will be discussed in greater depth later).
How one may enhance communication competency:
The following suggestions are given to enable one to develop communication
competency:
1- Know yourself: What motivates your interest in helping others? Identify your
emotional needs so that they don't interfere with the ability to relate to others.
2- Be Honest with your Feelings: Do not wear a mask to protect yourself or avoid
contact with others. Body language, gestures, and tone of voice can reveal your true
feelings or reactions to others. Your non-verbal communication may contradict your
spoken word if you are not honest with the others.
3- Be secure in your ability to relate to people: Don't allow the behavior of others to
threaten you. Remember that all behavior has meaning. Ask yourself, "What is the
person trying to communicate?
4- Be sensitive to the Needs of Others: Listen attentively by utilizing eye-to-eye
contact, focusing your attention on the speaker and assuming appropriate personal
distance. Use tact and diplomacy while conversing with others. All these will help you
to be sensitive.
5- Be Consistent: Consistency in what you say and do encourages the development of
trust.
6- Recognize the symptoms of Anxiety: Knowing anxiety when it appears in yourself
and those you relate to is important. Anxiety impairs communication if the person is
unable to concentrate or express feelings.
7- Watch your nonverbal reactions: aware of your body language because it punctuates
and modifies verbal messages. Use gestures cautiously to emphasize meanings,
reactions, or emotions.
8- Use words carefully: when relating to others, these words should be used cautiously:
I, you they, it, but, yes, no always, never, should, and ought. These words seen as
powerful words" that may be used thoughtlessly, appear to be accusations, be easily
misunderstood, cause confusion or ambivalence.
9- Recognize Differences: The fact that people may have personality or age differences,
or may have conflicting loyalties can impair communication.
10- Recognize and Evaluate your Own Actions and Responses: evaluate how you are
open or close minded, cooperative or uncooperative, and supportive or nonsupportive,
when you converse with someone.
