I am Cathy with Level Up RN, and in this video, I'm going to talk
about the nurse-client relationship, as well therapeutic communication.
And at the end of the video, I'll give you guys a little quiz to check your
knowledge about some of the key concepts that I'm going to cover in this video.
So let's first talk about a nurse-client relationship.
Within that relationship, there are four phases. The first phase is Pre-orientation. This is
where you prepare for your meeting with the patient. You will do a chart review,
and then you also want to examine your thoughts and feelings about working with the patient.
Then, during the Orientation Phase, you would perform introductions, establish rapport with
the patient, also establish boundaries, and talk about patient confidentiality.
You will set mutually agreeable goals with the patient and also establish the date,
time, place, and duration of meetings. Then, when we get to the Working Phase,
which is next, this is where we gather data and identify and practice
problem-solving skills and coping skills. We would provide education to the patient,
and then we would evaluate progress being made towards those goals during that Working Phase.
And then, finally, we have the Termination Phase of the nurse-client relationship
and during this time we would summarize the goals that were achieved during the relationship.
We can discuss incorporation of those new coping mechanisms and problem-solving skills into their
life and discuss their discharge plans. And then we also want to allow time
for the patient to share their feelings regarding termination of their relationship
because termination of the relationship may elicit a sense of grief from the patient.
Now let's talk about the concepts of transference and countertransference.
Transference is where the patient redirects or transfers
their feelings about a person from their past onto the nurse. So let's say a nurse reminds a patient
of their abusive mom and it causes that patient to treat the nurse in a very negative way.
That's an example of transference. And then countertransference is where the nurse's
feelings and response towards the patient are influenced by their past relationships.
So if a patient reminded the nurse of somebody from their past it may
cause the nurse to treat that patient differently. That is countertransference.
So within my wound care team, we have several team members and sometimes one of my partners
on the team. They have a really hard time with a certain personality or a certain person,
but it's not a really big deal for me. So I'm like, "Let me take them. That's
not a big deal," and vice versa. If there's somebody that kind of gets under
my skin or I have a harder time with, then sometimes my partner will take that patient.
That doesn't happen a lot, but every once in a while it does. And it's kind of nice that we
can share that burden and help each other out when counter-transference becomes an issue.
Alright. Next, let's talk about therapeutic communication. So I'm going to go through
some therapeutic communication techniques, and then we'll go through non-therapeutic
communication techniques. So therapeutic communication
is so important in the mental health setting, but it's also important in any setting, and so you'll
need to know these techniques for all your classes in nursing school, not just psychiatric nursing.
And then it's also going to be important to know these techniques for your nursing practice.
So let's go through some of them. First, we have broad opening remarks. So
this could be saying something like, "What would you like to talk about today?" And that helps to
engage the patient and get them talking, which is really the goal with a lot of these techniques.
Then we have open-ended questions. So, "Tell me more about the voices that you're hearing," and
that's important to get the patient talking and telling you what those voices are saying to he or
she so that you can determine if they're at risk for harm, or if others are at risk for harm so
that you can get the patient the help they need. Then we have sharing observations, and
an example of this would be, "You seem a little sad to me today." And then that kind of opens
the door for the patient to share more about how they're feeling and why they're feeling that way.
Then we have a technique called clarification, which is also referred to as validation,
and this is where you seek understanding for something that is vague or confusing.
So you can say something like, "Do I understand you correctly when you say this?" Right?
So if the patient is giving you a lot of information and you really just want to clarify
that you're understanding them correctly, then clarification or validation are good techniques.
Reflection is a technique you would use to refer a question back to the patient.
So if the patient's like, "Do you think I should try that new medication?" then I might say, "Well,
what are your thoughts on that?" And that's kind of like reflection.
So they ask me a question, and I kind of reflect it back to them so that they can really think
about it and make that decision. Another technique is offering self,
and and this is where you make yourself available to the patient. And an example of this would be--
I had a patient at the hospital. I had just finished some wound care, and he was in ICU,
and he was getting ready to get an IJ vascular access put in, and he was really scared.
And I told him-- I was like, "I will wait here with you while you get that done,"
even though I was done with wound care. He was really scared, and I was just there, and I held
his hand. So that was like offering of myself. Then we have restating. This is where
you repeat what the patient said to confirm your understanding. So if the patient says,
"I'm so anxious that I can't get to sleep," you could say something like, "So your anxiety is
keeping you up at night?" So kind of restating what they said to confirm my understanding.
And then lastly, we have presenting reality, which is really important in the mental health setting.
So this is where you are correcting a patient's misconception. So if they are saying that they're
hearing voices, you want to acknowledge that they are hearing voices, but you don't want
to validate the fact that there are voices. So you can say, "I understand that you're
hearing voices, but I do not hear any voices." So again, you want to acknowledge that their
perception of reality is real to them, but you also want to let them know that you
don't hear those voices, right? You want to present that reality.
And then other therapeutic communication techniques can include silence as well as eye
contact and therapeutic touch if appropriate. And this will vary across individuals,
different cultures, religions, so you really want to not make any assumptions that these techniques
would be okay for every single patient. But they can be helpful for many patients.
Alright. Let's now talk about non-therapeutic communication techniques.
So you do not want to use these techniques. These are not therapeutic.
So false reassurance. If you were to say to your patient, "Everything is going to be
just fine in the end," that would be false reassurance, and that is not therapeutic.
Also, passing judgement, so approving or disapproving is not therapeutic. So if you were
to say to your patient, "Yes, you did the right thing," that is not what we want to be doing.
Giving advice is also something we shouldn't do. So "you should or shouldn't" should not be
something that you say to your patient.Of course, I'm giving you advice right now,
but this is not therapeutic. But you shouldn't use "you should or shouldn't"
when talking to your patient in a therapeutic way. Then we have close-ended questions. So these
are like yes/no questions. "Are you feeling sad and they're like, "Yes,"
and that's the end of the conversation. That's not what we want. We really
want them to talk. So asking those close-ended questions really shuts off
the conversation when we want to open it up. Then we have why questions. "Why are you so
angry?" It really puts the patient on the defensive when you use these why questions. So
that is definitely not a therapeutic way to phrase a question. No why questions.
And then we have leading or biased questions like, "You don't smoke, do you?" And we're
kind of biased and leading the patient towards a certain answer. And that is also non-therapeutic.
And then finally, changing the subject is also not therapeutic. So,
"Let's talk about something else," is not something you're going to want to do.
Alright. Quiz time. First question. During which phase of the nurse-client relationship
do you discuss confidentiality with the patient?
If you answered... the orientation phase, you are right.
Okay. Now we're going to do a little speed round. I want you to give me a thumbs up if the statement
or question I give you is therapeutic and a thumbs down if it is not therapeutic. So we're going to
do four different question statements. First one. "You seem sad to me today."
Therapeutic, because you're sharing observations. "Why are you so angry?"
Not therapeutic. The question starts with why, which is always a warning sign, and it really
just puts the patient on the defensive. Third statement. "Everything will be okay
in the end." Not therapeutic, right. It's false reassurance, and you don't
actually know that things will be okay in the end. And then, "Tell me more about how you're feeling."
Therapeutic, because it encourages open communication,
encourages the patient to share more. Alright. That's it for this video. Thank
you so much for watching, and I'll see you soon. I invite you to subscribe to our channel and share
a link with your classmates and friends in nursing school. If you found value in this video, be sure
and hit the like button, and leave a comment and let us know what you found particularly helpful.