Individuals with mental health problems belong to a specific category of patients requiring a special approach in terms of care and treatment. Therapeutic communication with such patients should include methods that promote self-care, facilitate cooperation, allow them to feel comfortable and relaxed, and, most importantly, reduce misunderstandings and confusion. In particular, in a clinical setting, nurses typically apply open-ended questions, silence, repeat information, and show interest in patients’ concerns to stimulate them to work on their health problems. Thus, this paper aims at considering whether for new RN students with lacked necessary knowledge and skills, questioning, paraphrasing, summarizing, listening, silence, and non-verbal techniques help improve their communication with patients with mental health disorders.
The paper will also pursue three goals to answer the research question. It is worth noting that the author will deliver their answers based on a comprehensive literature review that contains peer-reviewed articles and other scholarly sources relevant to the given problems statement. The first goal is to briefly describe the most widespread mental disorders based on available data, including their prevalence, causes, and treatment. The second goal is to investigate how nurses’ shortcomings of necessary skills impact patient outcomes and satisfaction. Specifically, the author will examine students’ perceptions of patients with mental disorders, knowledge about respective diseases, and their competencies required to ensure appropriate care in a clinical setting.
The final goal is to seek and in-depth describe various communication practices used to interact and enhance cooperation with patients, especially those with mental health conditions. For instance, the practical techniques to improve therapeutic communication comprise a role-play simulation and online training programs (Furnes et al., 2018). The objective will also consider methods enhancing patient engagement in self-care since it is an essential strategy for bettering their wellbeing and outcomes. Moreover, the author will include the main obstacles, issues, and barriers occurring while interacting with patients with mental illnesses.
Reference
Furnes, M., Kvaal, K. S., & Høye, S. (2018). Communication in mental health nursing-Bachelor Students’ appraisal of a blended learning training programme-an exploratory study. BMC nursing, 17(20), 1-10.