English for Nursing 2

Topic 1

STARTING AN INTERVENTION
Instructional objective
The students are expected to be able to act out a conversation of starting an
intervention.

Reading
Direction. Read the text below and get some good insights. Then, asnwer the following questions.

Therapeutic Communication and Bedside Manner

There are two important terms to talk about as our very first learning material. They
are therapeutic communication and bedside manner.
What is therapeutic communication?
Therapeutic communication is defined as an interaction from a healthcare professional
to a patient and aims at promoting the physical and mental well-being of the patient.
The interaction typically involves both verbal and nonverbal communication from the
healthcare professional to convey a message in a calm manner.
What is bedside manner?
Bedside manner is the way in which a healthcare professional conveys him- or herself to
the patient. Bedside manner includes factors like attitude, friendliness, and empathy.
Bedside manner is one of the most important factors in therapeutic communication.
In other words, all healthcare professionals have a way in which they
demonstrate their bedside manner—and it can be either good or bad depending on the
person. But not all healthcare professionals have good therapeutic communication
skills.
Here are some tips to start a good therapeutic communication.
1. Smile with your eyes.
Be sure in the first few minutes of an interaction to smile all the way into your
eyes and make sure your patient (and their support team) sees it. Dr. Barbara
Wild found that we “catch” happier emotions when we see a genuine smile.
2. Greet your patient.
The first thing nurses must do when entering a patient’s room is t give a greeting.
Why? Because when you make the patient feel happy and show that you can
build rapport and trust with them, it takes a huge load of stress away from him
or her.
3. Ask open questions.

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 Try to have the first or last question be more open-ended. And it all starts with
asking the right type of questions.
Open-ended questions help build trust and deeper connection compared
to close-ended questions. They are great as a therapeutic communication
technique because they allow  patients to have greater freedom to open up and
talk more about what’s on their mind instead of just saying yes or no.

In a study of 1,527 medical students, medical interviews that lasted 5 minutes

long were conducted with standardized patients. In those 5 minutes, researchers
found that patients who were asked more open-ended questions provided more
information than patients in interviews with less open-ended questions.
(Source: https://www.scienceofpeople.com/therapeutic-communication/)

Questions:
1. By your own word, define therapeutic communication.
Therapeutic communication is defined as an interaction from a healthcare
professional to a patient and aims at promoting the physical and mental well-
being of the patient

2. By your own word, define bedside manner.

Bedside manner is the way in which a healthcare professional conveys him- or
herself to the patient. Bedside manner includes factors like attitude, friendliness,
and empathy. Bedside manner is one of the most important factors in
therapeutic communication.

3. How to start a good therapeutic communication?

 Smile with your eyes
 Greet your patient

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  Ask open questions
4. Between “Do you have a fever?” and “What is your problem?”, which one will you
use to start your therapeutic communication? Why do you choose it?

Related Vocabularies
Direction. Study the following vocabularies. Accomplish the sound of the words in blanks by searching
them independently. Then, add five more words.

 Need / nēd (v)  .................... /................/ (...)

 Want / wänt (v)  .................... /................/ (...)
 Help /help (v)  .................... /................/ (...)
 Do / do͞o(v)  .................... /................/ (...)
 Time / tīm (n)  .................... /................/ (...)

Useful Expressions
Direction. Study the following useful expressions of starting an intervention.
 It is time for me to ....
 Now, I am going to ....
 I would like to ....
 I need to ....
 I just want to ....
 Now I’ll help you ....
 Let me ....

 Check your temperature

 Check your blood pressure
 Give you an injection
 Change your position
 Take your blood sample
 Etc.

Integrated Listening and Speaking Exercise

Direction. Accomplish the following conversation then act out the dialogue.

Nurse: Good morning, Mr. Rowlan.

Mr. Rowlan: Good morning, Nurse.
Nurse: Did you sleep well last night?
Mr. Rowlan: Not really. I had a fever.
Nurse: (1) hmm let me check your temperature
It seems that you’ve got a temperature.

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 (2) now I am going to check your temperature using best termometer
May I insert this into your armpit?
Mr.Rowlan: Sure.
Nurse: Just keep it there for about five minutes.

Nursing Communication Practice

Direction. Work in pair to write a conversation scenario on the topic of ‘Starting An Intervention’.
Practice the conversation together. You are not allowed to read aloud the scenario.