The purpose of this essay is to describe an incident which occurred with a patient while in the clinical placement. This paper will attempt briefly to describe an encounter with a patient on the ward in terms of the use of effective communication skills.

Communication

• Introduction

The purpose of this essay is to describe an incident which occurred with a patient while in the clinical placement. This paper will attempt briefly to describe an encounter with a patient on the ward in terms of the use of effective communication skills. This essay will also provide two definitions of communication. In addition, this paper will describe how i used verbal/non verbal and other communication skills on the above encounter as well as explain what went well and my weaknesses on that occasion. For the purpose of preserving confidentiality, patients' name will be changed.

• Describe incident with patient

My current placement is in a geriatric ward, designed to deliver health care for old age. Mr. Black is a 64 year old patient diagnosed with personality disorder and paralysis. I approached Mr. Black after he had called for help. I addressed Mr. Black and asked him what i could do for him. As he started speaking, i used colloquialism, as Miller (2002) stated was part of verbal communication, yet i could not understand what he was saying, although i knew he was from the West Indies since i saw how his daughter looked and dressed the day before, his speech was not clear, he spoke low, stumbled over the words and could not articulate the sounds because of the paralysis. Although I asked him to speak louder so i can understand what he was saying, he continued speaking in an unclear manner. After few attempt i felt helpless as the patient was not making sense and there were other patients calling for attention. Suddenly, frustration and distress was appeared on Mr. Black's face, this indicated the urgency of what he was trying to tell me. I observed his surrounding area and notice that there was no catheter anywhere near Mr. Black's bed although i noticed he always had it around. This indicated that he must be wearing a pad. As i lifted the blanket off the patient to see if the pad needed to be changed, i realised what he was trying to tell me. The patient's blanket,bedsheets and clothes were completely wet. That is when he started crying of relief. With assistance from a staff nurse we changed all that was wet on Mr. Black's bed. He Introduced me to his daughter the next day and i told her he was telling me this morning that  she lived near Kilburn.