Question

Is therapeutic communication an important nursing skill? If so why or why not? After answering this explain one form of therapeutic communication and one form of non therapeutic communication.

Answer 1

Communication refers as the giving and receiving of information which people influence the behaviour ofanother leading to successful outcome.

Therapeutic communication is an inter-personal interaction between the nurse and the patient during which the nurse focuses on the clients specific needs to promote an effective exchange of information. Therapeutic communication is an important skill for nurses that is to accomplish  a good inter personal relationship. The therapeutic communication help nurses to accomplish many goals:-

>Establish a therapeutic client-patient relationship.

>Identify the most important clients needs.

>Assess the clients perception towards his present situation.

>To facilitate the clients expression of emotions.    For an effective therapeutic communication the nurse must consider the privacy and respect the boundaries, use of touch,and active listening and observation.

There are mainly 14 types of therapeutic communication, here we are discussing a method of   therapeutic comunication, Focusing:-, It is defined as the question or statements that help the client to expand on a topic of importance.It helps the client to become more specific, move from vagueness to clarfy and focus on reality. non therapeutic communication include ADVISING;- it encourages dependency relationship of client with a nurse.Some clients, who seek help,do not really expect to work out their own problems;rather they expect some pronouncement from the nurse on what to do.