Communication for Nurses: Talking with Patients

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The findings indicate that nurses use different types of conversation in their attempt to be supportive when talking to children and their parents. Metaphors can be used to facilitate an understanding between the child and the nurses, helping the child to become involved in the procedures. Most importantly, the nurses are able to talk in a language that the child understands. This finding is consistent with previous research from Kortesluoma and Nikkonen ( 2006) who maintain that children from the age of five are able to construct metaphorical expressions. Fleitas ( 2003) also discusses the benefits of using metaphors when talking with children in pediatric settings. We believe that nurses can be supportive by using metaphors although nurses have to be vigilant as there is a risk that children do not always understand, especially the younger children. Maben J, Bridges J. Covid‐19: Supporting nurses’ psychological and mental health. Journal of clinical nursing. 2020. pmid:32320509 The nurses feel that they are the patients’ advocates and they cannot simply be governed by feelings of resignation and pessimism. They need to do something more. Nurses need support, strategies and solutions from the organisation to demonstrate their role as the patients’ advocates [ 30]. The collaboration between nurses and doctors could lessen feelings of moral distress if they felt included in the decision-making process [ 31]. They need to participate in these interdisciplinary teams. However, the interviewed nurses felt that clinical practice was far removed from achieving an adequate minimum of inter-relationships and, according to them, this only exists in the theoretical discourse [ 32].

Self-conscious emotions provoke negative feelings like shame, guilt or embarrassment. Nurses report that, when they had experienced a situation in which they believed they could have helped the patient differently, but the conditions at the time did not permit it, they felt guilty about having taken part in the process. Nurses feel vulnerable in these situations where they cannot act. Meltzer H, Vostanis P, Dogra N, Doos L, Ford T, Goodman R. Children's specific fears. Child: Care, Health and Development. 2008; 35(6):781–789. [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar]

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The NRMP included in the study were skin tests for allergy, blood sampling (venous or capillary), intravenous cannula insertion (IV), needle insertion in a central vein port, and injections into the joint. All children were given standard therapy for NRMP which includes some form of topical anesthesia, apart from capillary blood sampling and skin tests for allergy. The topical anesthesia was applied at least 1 h prior to the NRMP. Standard therapy was also used with inhalation/sedation, N 2/0 2, for children who underwent injections into the joint and for those who had a needle phobia.The study had qualitative deductive design based on content analysis. Individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with sixteen participants. Results Papastavrou E, Andreou P, Vryonides S. The hidden ethical element of nursing care rationing. Nurs Ethics. 2014;21(5):583–93. Scherer KR. Toward a dynamic theory of emotion: the component process model of affective states. Geneva Stud Emotion Commun. 1987;1:1–98.

Kvale S, Brinkmann S. InterViews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Sage; 2009. Nurses suggest that there are external constraints that cause these situations, such as the institutional structure and its bureaucratisation, as well as the strict hierarchy that exists among professionals in hospital. This situation has its origins in a power structure, more or less open, and, in other cases, invisible influences in the nursing/caring process.The nurses suggested that there are external constraints that cause these situations, such as the institutional structure and its bureaucratisation, as well as the strict hierarchy that exists among professionals in hospitals. Hierarchy often results in the abuse of power and this then results in internal conflicts, more or less open, and, in other cases, invisible [ 29]. The findings are restricted to a pediatric care setting. Adding participants from outside a pediatric care unit may perhaps have contributed to additional findings pertaining to children receiving care in other care settings. Unfortunately we were only able to get respondents from the pediatric unit. Ivanoff SD, Hultberg J. Understanding the multiple realities of everyday life: basic assumptions in focus-group methodology. Scand J Occup Ther. 2006;13(2):125–32.

We carried out the analysis of the material from focus groups and interviews in several steps. After the verbatim transcription of the interviews, all personal identifiers were removed or replaced and a letter and a number were attributed to each participant. Deductive category application works with previously formulated, theoretically derived aspects of analysis, connecting them with the text. Hartog CS, Benbenishty J. Understanding nurse-physician conflicts in the ICU. Intensive Care Med. 2015;41(2):331–3.

Abstract

Otherwise, the biggest barrier that we've seen for patients not wanting to turn on their camera is they're not excited to show what's happening in their home setting to anybody else,” Dudley explained. McGrath P, Forrester K, Fox-Young S, Huff N. Holding the child down” for treatment in paediatric haematology: The ethical, legal and practice implications. Journal of Law Medicine. 2002; 10(1):84–96. [ PubMed] [ Google Scholar] Dahlberg H, Dahlberg K. To not make definite what is indefinite. A Phenomenological analysis of perception and its epistemological consequences. Journal of Humanistic Psychologist. 2003; 31(4):34–50. [ Google Scholar] Other findings stress that supporting their child is a natural part of parental responsibilities. In other words parents should not use restraint or perform tasks other than which pertains to their role as parents. This is in line with McGrath, Forrester, Fox-Young, and Huff ( 2002), Pearch ( 2005) and Schechter et al. ( 2007), who discuss that parents have a normal protective intuition, and some parents therefore find it difficult to restrain their children. We thus maintain that nurses must be flexible in responding to how and what parents express so that this limit is not exceeded. Being an attentive clinician is important to the overall patient experience because it is instrumental in reducing avoidable patient harms and support patient safety.