Communication Skills Flashcards
What is communication?
Communication is a vital element in nursing in all areas of activity and in all its interventions such as prevention, treatment, therapy, rehabilitation, education and health promotion. The patient conveys their fears and concerns to their nurse and helps them make a correct nursing diagnosis.
Why is record keeping important?
- Professional standards (NMC)
- Accountability
- Legal records
- Effective communication with the patient, service user, professionals and other agencies
- Patient assessment/care/safety
What is included in a healthcare record?
- Name, age and address
- Health conditions
- Treatments and medicines
- Allergies and past reactions to medications
- Tests, scans and x-ray results
- Lifestyle information, such as whether you smoke or drink
- Hospital admission and discharge information
What are common problems with record keeping?
- Inaccurate records- dates, times, order of events
- Spelling mistakes
- Not documenting
- Records not factual- containing speculation, subjective statements
- Clarity issues- illegible records, jargon or abbreviations, miscommunications
- Missing information- patient information, treatment, special requirements
- Documenting in the wrong patients notes
What is an early warning score?
Standardising communication of vital signs and reporting
- Early warning system to identify “at risk” patients at an early stage!
- NEWS2/MEWS/ PEWS (National, Modified/ Paediatric Early Warning Score)
- PAR Score (Patient At Risk Scoring)
- Calling Criteria – acute physiological changes
What is SBAR?
A tool for effective communication in contemporary clinical practice
SBAR is an easy to remember mechanism you can use to frame communications or conversations. It is a structured way of communicating information that requires a response from the receiver.
SBAR can be used very effectively to escalate a clinical problem that requires immediate attention, or to facilitate efficient handover of patients between clinicians or clinical teams.
What does SBAR stand for?
- Situation
- Background
- Assessment
- Recommendation
What does Situation stand for in SBAR?
-Identify yourself the site/unit you are calling from.
-Identify the patient by name and the reason for your communication.
-Describe your concern. The following example shows how to explain the specific situation about which you are calling, including the patient’s name, consultant, patient location, code status, and vital signs.
What does Background stand for in SBAR?
- Give the patient’s reason for admission
- Date of admission
- Recent procedures
- Explain significant medical history
- Inform the receiver of the information ie prior procedures, current medications, allergies, pertinent laboratory results and other relevant diagnostic results. For this part in the process you need to have collected information from the patient’s chart and notes.
What does Assessment stand for in SBAR?
- Vital signs.
- Clinical impressions, concerns. You need to think critically when informing the receiver of your assessment of the situation. This means you have considered what might be the underlying reason for your patient’s condition. Not only have you reviewed your findings from your assessment but you have also consolidated these with other objective indicators, such as laboratory results.
What does Recommendation stand for in SBAR?
- What you would like to happen by the end of the conversation. Any advice that is given on the phone needs to be repeated back to ensure accuracy.
- Explain what you need – be specific about request and time frame -Make suggestions.
- Clarify expectations.”in the meantime is there anything you would like me to do”
Where can SBAR be used|?
- Inpatient or outpatient
- Urgent or non urgent communications
- Conversations between clinicians, either in person or over the phone - particularly useful in nurse to doctor communications and also helpful in doctor to doctor communication
- Conversations with peers – change of shift report
- Communication between different disciplines, eg care home to emergency department
- Escalating a concern
- when patients move between NHS services or from social care to NHS services, eg care homes and into/out of hospital.
