Gelsey Jian

9/20/18
Communication Seminar 1
The message of the materials presented seems to be about varying forms of
communication, particularly involving patients in hospice or long-term care facilities. As with
many things, communication is multi-factorial. In the healthcare field, explanations for instance
should be used so that the patient understands their condition and treatment at a level appropriate
for their health literacy. Contact between members of the healthcare team must also be
established for direct communication to reduce confusion and waiting time. This necessity was
emphasized in the movie Wit, when the research doctor Jason was unable to find the nurse to
monitor Dr. Bearing’s pelvic exam, leaving the patient alone in the room in an uncomfortable
position and exposed. However, perhaps the most important form of communication is
compassionate communication. All of these materials emphasize the need for compassionate
communication by nursing professionals to ensure the highest quality of care for their patients.
Patients in hospice, or terminally ill patients, will often see healthcare professionals much
more regularly than healthy individuals, likely on a daily basis. Of these healthcare professionals,
they will mostly likely spend more time with nurses. Therefore, nurses tend to become a crucial
bridge between the patient and the provider that extends beyond physical treatment. Nurses have
a duty to provide mental and emotional treatment as well. As outlined by the article
“Incorporating Peplau’s Theory of Interpersonal Relations to Promote Holistic Communication
Between Older Adults and Nursing Students”, there are several steps to maintaining mental and
emotional health in older patients. Nurses, especially young nurses, can assume things about the
way an older patient may be able to act or behave. Doing things for the patient that the patient
can safely do themselves can make patients feel incompetent. Therefore, it is a kind gesture to
ask a patient if they can do something on their own, such as brush their teeth. This treatment
should extend to terminally ill patients as well.
Of course, the number one way to practice compassion in the healthcare world is by
treating patients as human beings, rather than names and numbers on a clipboard. This issue is
outlined by the film, especially pertaining to the research doctors who periodically talked about
Dr. Bearing, often while she was in the room. These doctors were less concerned about Dr.
Bearing’s wellbeing than they were about their results, to the point where Jason continued to
order the full dose of Hex Vin without consulting Dr. Bearing, even though the nurse was
concerned about her ability to tolerate the medication. Jason also made a rather jarring statement
halfway through the film, complaining about putting on protective gear while Dr. Bearing was in
isolation and loudly proclaiming that he “didn’t have time for this.” Healthcare professionals
should never exasperatedly complain about doing procedures in front of the patient, as it can
make the patient feel like they are inconveniencing their caregivers. All healthcare professionals
should work to make the patient feel like they are in the most capable hands and cared for by a
team of people who truly want to help them.
 An interesting issue brought up by the film was about how healthcare professionals
handle asking routine patients to patients who see doctors and nurses every day. For safety
reasons, patients are asked to state their name and age, as well as answer questions about their
health and social life, almost daily. However, to the patient this can start to seem tedious,
repetitive, and eventually exhausting. It is not hard to imagine how being asked the same
information over and over can seem to devalue that information. It is an interesting conundrum
because the information is always pertinent and needs to be asked by every new healthcare
professional who becomes involved with that patient’s care and there is little room to
compromise in that regard. However, it may be possible to help the patient feel less devalued if
the questions were asked in an uplifting manner as if the asker was genuinely interested in the
answers, rather than if the questions were asked in flat monotonous speech in rapid-fire
succession. Once again, this can help the patient feel like less of a burden and improve their
emotional health.
The consequences of using compassion in communication are outlined by the Dalai
Lama’s work “The Compassionate Life”, where different types of care and their outcomes are
compared. According to the Dalai Lama, kind and warm care in a hospital setting eases patients,
whereas cold-hearted and robotic care can increase patient anxiety. No patient ever wants to be
in a hospital. The last thing they need are caregivers who also don’t want them there. It is
imperative to provide compassionate care, and this pertinence is expected the most out of the
nurses who have the most contact with the patient.