Applying Theory to a Practice Problem: Introduction and Problem of Practice

Applying Theory to a Practice Problem: Introduction and Problem of Practice
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Applying Theory to a Practice Problem: Introduction and Problem of Practice
Communication plays an important role in the nursing practice as it facilitates patient-nurse interaction that is necessary in care provision. Despite the extensive clinical knowledge possessed by nurses, failure to communicate effectively, especially with patients, can affect the patient-nurse interaction (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014). This is because nurses have to translate the medical terminologies into simple terms that the patient can understand, which at times is challenging. In addition, communicating information to patients who are usually suffering becomes a challenge because sometimes nurses lack empathy (Bello, 2017). Other factors that affect interpersonal communication in nursing practice include failure to properly manage conflict in the workplace, which can put people at loggerheads thus hindering communication. Bello (2017) also notes that the high workload on nurses affects their interpersonal communication. This is because they spend little time giving information to necessary parties since they have to juggle between many tasks.
As noted by Dunbar and Nagar (2016), patient-centered care and effective communication between patients and nurses are important as they promote quality patient care and safety. Poor communication between nurses, patients, and doctors can lead to malpractice cases that result from misunderstanding or misinterpretation of information from either the sender or the receiver. A report released by Crico (2015) after examining 7,149 malpractice cases revealed that ineffective communication contributed to 30 percent of the malpractice cases. Some of these malpractice cases involved the death of patients who could have been saved if there was effective communication between the involved parties. Some studies have shown that nurses have administered wrong drugs to patients as a result of ineffective communication, resulting in the premature death of patients (Bello, 2017). This is an alarming revelation and given that the responsibility of communication in healthcare units falls mostly on nurses, it calls for improved interpersonal comm...