Why communication skills are essential for psychiatric nurses Effective communication with a patient suffering from mental disorders such as schizophrenia, dementia, depression or such other ailments will play a vital role in identifying the right process of treatment and quicken the pace of recovery. Unlike other registered nurses, a psychiatric nurse should possess better communication skills, more importantly, therapeutic communication skills, because, he or she needs to have a better understanding with the patient, as the goal of psychiatric nursing is the whole care of the patient and not just the disease or ailment. In most of the cases, patients having an insane mind or unstable mind needs to be better understood than normal patients because the treatment patterns and the nursing process largely depends on the nature and intensity of the problem. The responsibility of a psychiatric nurse is not just to cure the disease, but more importantly, treat the patient as a whole person and formulate nursing process and procedures based on the input from the patient. How do effective therapeutic communication skills help a psychiatric nurse? Communication is essential between the psychiatric nurse and the patient such that the nurse instills a sense of trust about him or her in the mind of the patient. If there is no trust between the nurse and the patient, then treating that patient will be a tough job for the nurse. Once the trust is reinforced between the patient and the nurse, it becomes easy for the nurse to bring about changes in the behavior of the patient. A welcome change in the behavior of the patient’s activities is a sign that he or she is on the right course of treatment. The nurse, having gained the trust of the patient and succeeded in bringing about changes in the patient’s behavior, can work towards promoting the health of the patient by devising appropriate nursing procedures and execution of the plan. The unstable nature of the mind of the patients can be effectively tackled by the psychiatric nurse by identifying the root cause or trauma that led to the problem in the first instance and then work towards the goal of treating the patient come out of the trauma. Therapeutic communication, aimed at improving the condition of the patient, unlike social interaction, gains importance such that both the nurse and the patient understand the need for changes and work towards that goal. Clear understanding of the root causes will help in finding an effective solution at the earliest, and therapeutic communication is the ideal tool for identifying the problem. Through the means of effective communication, a nurse, having understood about the nature, attitude and behavior of the patient, can strive to teach the patient, reinforce the importance of need for change, fix the limits, and provide other types of nursing care to improve the health of the patient. The psychiatric nurse, as part of the therapeutic communication process, needs to sit alongside with the patient and other family members of the patient, talk in a polite way in measured words that instill the sense of confidence and trust on behalf of the patient. As part of the therapeutic communication, the psychiatric nurse should always bear in mind that he or she following the professional values of the job and gains the respect and recognition of the patient.
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