Running Head: Non-Verbal Communication 1

Non-Verbal Communication in the Nursing Field

Emma Treuil

Louisiana State University

Authors Note
This paper is arranged for English 2001, taught by Professor Coco. The author would like to
thank all of the doctors, authors, editors, and specialist for helping me understand the importance
of non-verbal communication in the nursing field.
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Abstract:
This paper explores three published articles that report on research done in school, and using real

life experiences on the topic of non-verbal communication in the nursing field. The audience

should know the role of a nurse and how to better care for patients. In the first article, The

Dancing Nurses and the Language of the Body, the authors are explaining how nurses

nowadays are not comfortable with bed side care and patient-nurse interaction. The author breaks

the article down by giving several different methods that a University is using to better prepare

there nursing student for real-world interaction with their patients. The second article I used to

better understand non-verbal communication was Communication difficulties and strategies

used by the nurses and their team in caring for the hearing impaired. This article breaks down

the struggles nurses have with communication to those with hearing impairment issues. To better

understand the article, the author gives ways that nurses use to communicate with their patients.

The last article I used was Non-verbal behavior in nurse-elderly patient communication. In this

article, the author gives the difficulties that the nurses come across when communication with the

elderly. It also gives specific gestures and ways to better the interaction with the elderly patients.

Key Words: Non-Verbal Communication, Communication Difficulties, body

Language
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Preface: In my opinion, I do not think this is my strongest paper at this very moment. I

really need my peers comments and inputs in order to better this paper. For my focus, I would

give myself a 2 because it does not really have a direction just yet. For my organization, I would

give myself a 1 because I think my paragraphs are not really in the correct order, and If I

rearranged them it would be better. For my development, I give myself a 2 because I know what

I want to say, but I am not sure how I want to say them. For my audience awareness, I feel like I

would give myself a 2 because my paper is not really engaging for them, but it is engaging for

me.

For the midterm portfolio, I really thought your comments and feedback were very helpful. It

was very nice to hear what was good and what was not good about our papers. I found that all of

the revisions that you suggested were necessary, and I think that they were viable to the success

of my papers. I think my papers are much better now that I have followed my peer review

comments and followed your comments for my paper. I loved how we did peer review all

semester, and I wish we would have been able to submit the papers for more feedback, but the

feedback that we did get was very helpful.

Non-Verbal communication in the Nursing Field

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Introduction: The success of many relationships rely fully on the ability to communicate between

two or more people. Communication is important in all relationships because it allows people to

share- interests, concerns, and allows for support to be given. Effective communication is based

off how people talk and listen to one another, and how we respond to body language. We can all

learn how to improve our communication skills especially in todays society with technology;

people are slowly forgetting how to communicate without the assistance of some form of

technology. There are many different types of communication, but there are four broad types:

Verbal, non-verbal, written, and oral. Using all of these different forms of communication allows

people to deepen and better their relationship with the people around them. Using body

movement and language allows the patient and the healthcare provider to become a little more

comfortable with each other, and the patient wont feel violated or worried when the healthcare

provider attempts to help the patient. When patients have problems that prevent patients from

effectively communicating, nurse need to make sure that they have effective ways to reach out to

their patients that are most comfortable to them.

Overview of Genre:

When we communicate, we can can say a lot based off of our body language, posture,

facial expression, tone of voice, and even the way we do everything can have a major impact on

our communication. Non-verbal communication is so important because every move you make,

the tone of it, and the expression on your face can make the world of difference to your patient.

In the healthcare world, body language is key. Positive body language is so important because

the body language of a patients healthcare assistance determines everything. For example, a

nurse needs to walk into a patients room with a smile on their face, and make sure the patient is

comforted knowing everything is going to be alright. Non-verbal communication is the basis of

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communication. Without Non-verbal communication, it would be hard for people to express how

they truly feel and it wouldnt allow them to show their true feelings and concerns in the

healthcare world. Using different forms of non-verbal communication can allow healthcare

workers to reach out to many different types of patients. This paper will examine 3 different

examples to better understand the role of non-verbal communication.

Example 1 and 2 of Nonverbal Communication in the Nursing Field

Throughout the many different ways people can communicate non-verbally, the most

creative and newly effective form is dancing. The Dancing Nurses and the Language of the

Body, The University of Copenahagen did a research project titled: BodyContact and

Embodied Professional Competence in Nurse Education which examines the nursing students

and the different courses they are taking. The university recently proposed the idea of

incorporating a dance class into the curriculum in order to better their body language for their

prospective patients. In nursing, the flow of words may stop, but the language of the body never

stops. The language of the body is what is spoken between humans (Journal of holistic writing

198). The language of the body is always present between a patient and the caregiver, and that is

something that can never be avoided. Dancing is a form of art, figuratively and literally. Dance is

an expression of one self, and contains many different emotions than can affect people. Gergen

states:

Caring is not something the nurse does for the patient, but something that is co-created

in interaction, a coordinated dance between two persons in a specific relationship. The

patient must teach the nurse how to care, and the nurse must listen, not only to the

patients words but to his or her unspoken bodily response (Gergen 2000, Thomas &

Pollio).
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As this tiny, everyday dance is exemplified, both the tiny dance and the and the dance lessons, it

is a great way to teach and non-verbally communicate (Grontved &Ilkjaer, 2013).

Examples 3 and 4 of Nonverbal Communication in the Nursing Field

In the Copenhagen study, the researchers also gave their different levels of the study title

names that can correspond the first level is Self-contact, and somatic awarenessexploring

rhythm, contact, connectedness, boundaries and trust through dance. According to Kettie: We

do several exercises in which we dance with each other. One of us is the patient and the

other is the nurse. In the exercise the nurse is to lead, and its Berit doing that. We dance opposite

each other and hold each others hand. We look at each other and hold each others hand. This is

what it is all about; nurse-patient interaction. The second level of the study is Communication

reading and contact ability. The ability to be able to read someones body language is key in this

field. Eye contact is one of the most important things to have between a patient and a caregiver.

If the caregiver looses eye contact, it may suggest that something serious is wrong or that the

caregiver does not want to be with the patient. The third level of the study is: Leadership and

followership. Nurses are patients do not always have the teacher learner relationship, but it does

demand a high and healthy relationship based off of authoritativeness (The dancing nurses and

the language of the body 189). As the article states, the three levels of the professional

competence are connected, and extremely important. The results of the study conclude that by

using the different scenarios of communication between the nurse and the patient, it broadened

the students prospective and allowed for the students to experience some real life situations in

order to better prepare for the real world.

Example 5 of Nonverbal Communication in the Nursing Field

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Communication allows a person to reach out to people of all types. For all of the different

types of people, there are forms of communication that better that specific type of person. For

example, in this article that I researched titled Communication Difficulties and Strategies used by

the Nurses and Their Team in Caring for the Hearing Impaired discusses different methods used

to communicate to the hearing impaired. Oral-auditory language allows the communication

among individuals and enhances people to organize ideas and thoughts. Being hearing impaired,

it makes it very difficult to communicate in our society and prevents certain messages from being

carried out (Einstein 1). There are many difficulties in the nursing community when dealing with

the hearing impaired. According to the Scientific committee of Faculdade, data was collected of

nurses to see which forms of communication were best used to communicate to the hearing

impaired.. The main strategy of all the interviewees reported to use mimicry to communicate to

the patients. Lip reading was also very big in the use of strategies, and only a few people used

sign language. One of the other forms of communication to the hearing impaired is writing

down whatever you need to say. This is a little more time consuming, but it gives the patient the

confidence he or she may need. Having to determine language without sound is something very

hard for people to do. In the hospital setting, the overall atmosphere creates a less confident

feeling for the patient (Einstein 83). Personally, I could not imagine not being able to hear what

anyone was saying but especially your healthcare giver; That is key and is highly mandatory in

order to understand what is being said. Non-verbal communication is a little more difficult to

communicate with the hearing impaired.

Just like communication with the hearing impaired, communication with the elderly is n

entirely different ball game. Caring for the elderly requires a certain type of nurse that is willing

to provide twenty-four-hour care. When caring for the elderly there are many different forms of
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communication that are necessary: eyegaze behavior, affirmative head nodding, smiling, body

position and touch (Journal of Advanced nursing 29). When interacting with a patient, all of

these are key to the success of that case. If a nurse walks into a room smiling, gives the patient a

nice bodily gesture, and are in an overall good mood; that patient is going to be more willing to

open up to the nurse and to feel more secure with the nurse.

Drawing conclusions from all of the sources is that body language is absolutely necessary

for a healthy and strong bond between the patient and the nurse. Communication is a key item in

todays society and it allows people to form relationships with people. The different forms of

communication and the use of body language is such a great attribute to our healthcare world

today. Non-verbal communication is the least researched form of communication being that it is

the most difficult to convey. Researchers need to find more and better ways for nurses and health

care providers to convey non-verbal communication to their patients. When faced with patients

that are challenged with non-verbal communication issues, approach the patient with healthy

body language and that may alleviate some of the issues at hand with non-verbally communicate.

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