Running Header: ORAL COMMUNICATION

Oral Communication

Jonette M. Fitzgerald

March 4, 2017

Admissions Committee

Authors Note
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This paper was written for English 2001 which is taught by professor Jean Coco. The

audience is going to be fellow nursing school students. The author would like to thank her

professor for such great guidance through the process of writing this paper.

Preface:
I feel like my paper should be rated a two in focus. I feel that I improved my focus and it
is easily distinguishable to see what my main points are. The organization of my final paper is a
little bit still all over the place, but I did my best. My development improved drastically and I
feel like I had strong points and strong evidence to support those points as well.
I think the paragraph that works the best and would be considered my strongest is my
second paragraph, or my first body paragraph. For example, when I used the example from The
Hearts Truth I felt that that point was my strongest because it kind of created an emotional
connection. Im not sure if we were supposed to include this but I decided to keep it safe and
include it. I am extremely concernced with my citations because I have always had difficulty
doing those correctly.

Nursing is one of the most diverse occupations in society due to the various job

opportunities and constant high demand of new workers. The health department is always

looking for new employees with all of the proper characteristics in order to fulfill the occupation

to its best. Nurses are held highly responsible for his or her patients health, they must check

their vital signs and make sure he or she is receiving the proper dosage of medicine. In order for

these nurses to keep up with their job they must have an understanding of everything that is

going on around them. This forces the nurses to have explicable communication skills.

Communicating is key for nurses to be able to successfully complete their jobs, and there are

even various forms of communication For example, there is non-verbal communication, written

communication, visual communication, and oral communication. Oral communication is

prominent in nurse to nurse activity, nurse to doctor transaction, as well as nurse to patient

interactions.
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Nurse to patient oral communication is important for several different reasons. First, it is

very important in order for the patient to completely understand not only what is wrong with

them but also what procedures they will under go. However, a pit fall for this oral

communication is the level of literacy. For example, it is sometimes difficult for a patient to feel

completely safe while in the medical setting due to their lack of this specific knowledge. It is

often common for a nurse to have to simplify the things that they must explain to their patient in

order to avoid patient anxiety. To understand the patient only is not sufficient but the nurse must

also convey the message that he/she is understandable and acceptable. (ncbi.org).

Oral communication is key to not only younger patients, but all kinds of patients. It is

often believed that talking to a patient that is not necessarily in the condition to respond, will

recover in a much more positive outcome. Even though it is up for debate whether or not the

patient that is on the vent can actually hear you, some nurses believe in still talking to these

patients as they would someone that was conscious. An example of this was actually in The

Hearts Truth. The nurse used to read to the man that was on the vent, she would tell hi stories,

and most of all she would dance with him. Years later after his recovery, he was able to go back

to the hospital and find her just judging by her voice. He thanked her for talking to and dancing

with him. Even though other nurses looked at her as if she were crazy at the time, she still did

what she thought was best. In the end, her method of oral communication came back positive.

Another key factor in oral communication is to focus on not only what you say, but how

it is being said. Using a more positive tone relates positively to a patients outcome.

(Nursingworld.org). It is common for nurses that are kinder to their patients to get more attached.

Unfortunately, this is known to have a negative effect on the mental stability of the nurse because

not every single person can be saved. Developing relationships with patients in detrimental
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situations doesnt always have a positive outcome. At the end of the day each individual nurse

gets to make the decision on how deep they want to involve themselves with patients through

oral communication. This is much better explained in a quote from the Nursing World website,

Due to our constant exposure to other human beings who are suffering, nurses are perfectly

positioned to utilize effective interpersonal communication, and in doing so, support our own

emotional, psychological, and spiritual development. Often times nurses are put in difficult

situations with the way they want to run things and the issues patients might have below the

surface. In order for nurses to be able to handle these situations effectively they must use proper

phrases, which can be hard to identify at times. Therefore, nurses are often given charts to help

the asses the confrontation a little easier. An example from the nursing world website is as

follows:

Possible causes Possible Possible Cures/Strategies Examples of

Consequences or Possible Wording
Interpretations for Effective
Communication
1. Social/Familial/ Frustration Talk openly about the I am not really
Organizational/Cultura Helplessness cultural taboos and how comfortable
l Taboos regarding No Lack of Trust they may have bringing this up,
Talk Issues. Substantive Issues contributed to a climate but I feel we need
are ignored wherein people are to address it.
reluctant to share or I am concerned
tackle difficult issues. about a patient
safety issue that I
want to bring to
the attention of
the team.
There is an issue
that is bothering
me, and I feel we
need to discuss
it.
2. Poor Conflict Inappropriate and Learn how to respectfully I can see that
Management Skills misdirected anger disagree. you are upset. I
ORAL COMMUNICATION 5

Finger pointing Become comfortable with would like to

Blaming affect (yours and others). discuss this
Remain calm and calmly and
professional in all rationally.
situations. Perhaps we can
negotiate a
compromise,
middle ground?
It looks like we
may not agree on
this, so lets table
it for now and
discuss again.
3. Poor Knee jerk Learn skills for If you could do
Negotiation/Problem- responses collaboration. what you enjoy
Solving Skills Temporary or short- Become comfortable with most, what would
term fixes unfinished (long term) that be?
(sometimes referred solutions.
to as Band-Aids) Discover your strengths
Focus is on and those of others.
putting out fires Assign or negotiate
rather than vision tasks/workgroups/project
s based on individual
strengths and interests,
versus a we just need a
warm body to complete
this approach.

Another focus of oral communication is between the doctor and nurse and also nurse to

nurse. It is vital for nurses to be able to speak clearing to one another to be able to take complete

care of their patients to their full ability. Bad communication between nurses can quickly put a

patient in critical condition if they are not on the same wavelength of knowledge. By this I mean

regarding the vital sign or the amount of medicine the patient must be taking. These things are

often lost in translation and thats where the pitfall comes in. Nurse to doctor communication is

also very important because the doctor is the one providing all of the information on the state of

the patient. It is often said that communication with a doctor or physician in particular can be
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rather difficult because of their level of knowledge, and also because of they can often times

come off as rude, dismissive or intimidating (rntobsn.org).

Oral communication is very important in the nursing fields because it determines overall

the type of nurse that one can be. Being able to speak clearly to a patient and help them through

their healing process is highly valued and will help build that individuals self-esteem. Not only

that but also being able to communicate with physicians and nurses will make the job much

easier and more bearable. There are many forms of communication in the nursing field, these

include verbal, non verbal, written, and visual. All of these come together to produce the many

interactions seen in the medical field.

The big takeaways of having oral communication as my topic is that there are only so

many things that can be displayed online. Everything oral isnt always written down like every

other topic is. This caused my research to be a little bit more difficult. Also, the big problem is

that I hate this stupid class. Why do I even bother to come when I have an A in here.
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Bibliography

Kathleen A. Vertino, (September 30, 2014.) Effective Interpersonal Communication: A Practical

Guide to Improve Your Life OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. 19, No.

3.

Papathanasio I. V. and Kourkouta L. (2014, February 20). Communication in Nursing Practice.

Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3990376/

RntoBsn. (2012 August). Oral Communication Skills and Emotional Intelligence. Retrieved from

http://www.rntobsn.org/resources/oral-communication-skills/

Davis, C. (2009) The Hearts Truth. Pages 20-24. Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press.