In nursing, communication is one of the most essential elements in ensuring that the safety of the patients has been met, because without it, then the patient outcome rates will be considerably low. For many years, effective communication has been linked to the positive outcomes of patients. It has been noticed that nurse communication has an effect on the length in which patients stay in hospital as well as the efficiency of their treatment. Adequate nurse communication in medical centers has the outcome of decreasing the duration of patients’ stay in hospital. It has also been found that there is a decrease in the number of medical errors made concerning patients. Furthermore, adequate communication also has an impact on nurses because they become more motivated in their work, which increases their efficiency. This efficiency helps the patient as it improves the care which they are given, and this leads to the patient’s swift recovery.
One of the factors which influence communication between nurses and patients is the complexity of the hospital and nursing systems, so that the larger and more complex they are, the higher the risk that the potential for patient errors will be increased. It is therefore necessary to ensure that adequate communication between the various hospital systems is instituted so that the number of such errors can be reduced or done away with. The quality of care depends completely on the accuracy and completeness of information being available to the nurses who care for the patients. While this is important, it should be noted that the accuracy of the information becomes outdated over time and this is the reason why more, up to date information has to be collected to ensure that the caregivers provide the best service possible to the patient.
Errors tend to occur when during the communication of a patient’s medication. This usually happens when there is a misinterpretation of the various abbreviations or acronyms to the drugs which have been prescribed to the patient. This creates a situation where there is the potential of a patient taking the wrong drugs, taking the drugs at the wrong time of the day, or even worse, taking an overdose of the prescribed drugs. It is therefore necessary to ensure that errors in the writing down of instructions for the patient or caregiver are avoided and that the person writing the said instructions is alert at all times to the potential of making mistakes. Among the recommendations that can be made is that there must be a standardization of all the abbreviations and acronyms for the drugs used in the medical field so that there can be no confusion over the type of drugs that have been prescribed. It has been found that many drugs have similar names which may lead to the nurse giving the patient the wrong medicine. To prevent such incidences, it has been recommended that capital and small letters be used to differentiate the drugs with similar names to avoid confusion. This will work to ensure that there is uniformity in the communication of medication and this will ultimately promote the safety of the patients to whom the medication is prescribed. With uniformity in communication, the work of the nurses will become less cumbersome because they will be able to be accurate in their administration of medication.
In many hospital systems, there is always a breakdown in communication due to the fact that the nursing staff is usually afraid to report errors because of the potential of being punished. This fear has made it difficult for errors to be corrected and has ensured that the outcome for patients is greatly diminished. The lack of adequate communication has created a scenario where nurses are not able to conduct their activities efficiently and this has come to have a devastating impact on the safety of the patients. Hospital management should create an environment where nurses and other hospital staff are comfortable enough to report any errors which they find without any fear of punishment. In order to achieve this, the management of the hospital should have frequent communication with the nurses who deal directly with the patients and know firsthand the needs and requirement of the latter. Such regular communication ensures that the nursing staff is free with the management, and because of this, errors which would not otherwise have been pointed out come to be dealt with quickly to ensure the safety of the patients involved.
The effort of the healthcare industry to improve the safety of patients is being hampered because of the poor communication between caregivers and patients as well as the lack of adequate tools for measuring the safety of patients. Furthermore, despite the availability of a wide array of medical equipment and practices, they cannot be effective without there being adequate communication between the caregivers and the patients. In order to make sure that medical care is efficient, there is a need for the establishment of mechanisms or structures which will enable medical staff to communicate with patients. This will ensure that medical staff to acquire adequate and accurate data to help them make the correct judgment concerning how to deal with patients. This will create a situation where the number of errors are reduced and the effectiveness of treatment, hence patient safety.
While a few decades ago the incidents of errors being made by hospital staff were low, today, such errors have become common and the biggest cause of this is poor communication. This has become so widespread that it is a constant worry for the management of hospitals. The best way through which caregiver can ensure the safety of their patients is when they have adequate knowledge of the condition of their patient. This ensure that the caregiver is better able to communicate with the patient and it creates an environment where the patient is confident in his or her caregiver and this helps to improve patient outcome.
Communication is an important factor in ensuring the safety and high outcome for patients and it is essential that nurses develop their communication skills. Communication is one of the most common problems facing the medical profession today and it is because of this that the number of errors has, over time, increased. It is therefore necessary for adequate communication to be developed with patients to ensure that they have a high standard of safety.
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