Clarifying Patients' Communications
1963; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 63; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/3452729
ISSN1538-7488
Autores Tópico(s)Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
ResumoC AN A NURSE SAFELY assume she has relieved a patient's distress without asking him how he feels about what she has done? Do patients' requests and comments always indicate clearly what they need? The following example is taken from a study designed to help find the answers to these and other similar questions(1). Around 2:00 o'clock one afternoon a surgical patient started pacing in front of the nurses' station. Where's the charge nurse? he asked, scowling. Oh, there you are! The doctor told me this morning was supposed to get some cough medicine. haven't got it yet. Do you suppose I'm going to get Can you get it? I'll check and see, the nurse said. She went to the doctor's order book. Not understanding the order, she asked a few nurses about it and then inquired further about the use of the drug. After writing the drug card and ordering the medicine, she returned and told the patient his medication would arrive in a few minutes. About a half hour later it arrived, and the proper dosage was given to him. Thank you, he said with a smile. But had he really been helped? That is what wanted to find out in this study. was not sure that patients' requests always clearly indicate their needs. If the patient is still in distress after the nurse assumed she has met his needs, and if she fails to ask questions about the meaning of the request or how her activity helped, the patient may not feel free to say he still needs help. Therefore, talking with patients after episodes like the one just described was part of my investigatory technique to find out whether patients really felt they had been helped by what was done for them. When asked this particular patient about how he felt, he replied: I need the cough medicine. have had chronic sinusitis for 40 years. have to irrigate my nose. All that mucus goes into my chest and have to cough it up. have to have a prostatectomy tomorrow, and have to be able to breathe and cough and get the mucus up now, or know the doctor won't do the operation. I've been waiting hours for the cough medicine. The doctor told me this morning at around 8:30 that he'd order it for me. Yes, know what need, that's why asked the nurse. It's when don't get the medicine that get in trouble. take care of it myself when I'm at have all the equipment need at home. What had found out?-that this patient knew what he needed to relieve his discomfort; that he could, therefore, clearly communicate a relevant request to the staff; that his irritation had stemmed from waiting to have the request fulfilled; and that he had been helped.
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