Social Skills Should Be a Bigger Focus in Nursing School

[Kenneth S. Veillon]

So many new grads are unprepared for the social aspect of the field. They almost unilaterally complain of personality conflicts with peers and management and frequently leave the whole field because they aren't able to deal with personalities. 

In my opinion, this needs to be addressed in regards to the preperation of new grads.

[Guest219794]

On 5/24/2021 at 1:44 PM, Mavnurse17 said:

I think there absolutely needs to be some sort of lecture about communication in healthcare-

I doubt anybody has ever learned anything about communication by sitting in a lecture  Thought there are effective ways of facilitating development of communications skills, this is WAY beyond the ability of most nursing schools.

On 5/24/2021 at 1:44 PM, Mavnurse17 said:

When they taught us SBAR they said "make sure you give a really good background or else the physician will yell at you for waking them up and not knowing what you're talking about."

You had horrible instruction in a critical aspect of nursing.  Think that person would do any better teaching about social skills?

 

[T-Bird78]

I think a refresher course on etiquette and manners would be good toward the end of the program. We’re all burnt out and overly stressed by the time we finish, and a reminder that we’re human would be good. I’m in an office setting and it drives me up the wall when another nurse/MA opens the door and yells “Jones” instead of “Bob Jones for Dr. Smith” or at least “Mr. Jones for Dr. Smith”. I have one newer coworker who will cut people off as she’s going through the ROS, asking if they have any pain;  if they say “yes, but only sometimes” she’ll tell them “these are yes or no questions only” and won’t let them talk. It’s good for time, but pts take it the wrong way. Little things like tone and HOW you say things go a long way. And spelling/grammar in nursing notes and charting is a must!

[Mavnurse17, BSN, RN]

4 hours ago, hherrn said:

I doubt anybody has ever learned anything about communication by sitting in a lecture  Thought there are effective ways of facilitating development of communications skills, this is WAY beyond the ability of most nursing schools.

 

Communication in a multi-disciplinary team is a whole other language in itself.  You don't think it'd be beneficial for there to be at least one lesson over what to expect and how to effectively communicate in these teams before a new grad hits the floor?  For learners like me, learning theory before doing a skill is better than being thrown into it I.e. 'learning on the job.' Maybe I'm being a chump here but retrospectively I think it would've been nice to have a few practice SBAR exercises in a senior class such as capstone so I could have a baseline on that before finding myself fumbling on the floor 1 month into my career.  

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

23 hours ago, Mavnurse17 said:

Communication in a multi-disciplinary team is a whole other language in itself.  You don't think it'd be beneficial for there to be at least one lesson over what to expect and how to effectively communicate in these teams before a new grad hits the floor?  For learners like me, learning theory before doing a skill is better than being thrown into it I.e. 'learning on the job.' Maybe I'm being a chump here but retrospectively I think it would've been nice to have a few practice SBAR exercises in a senior class such as capstone so I could have a baseline on that before finding myself fumbling on the floor 1 month into my career.  

We had lessons on this topic at my nursing school!

Hppy

 

 

[JKL33]

On 5/26/2021 at 9:56 AM, ZiggyGuzman said:

I agree with one of the previous posters- it seems this question has been strangely interpreted from what the original poster intended. 

I interpreted this as "should there be some sort of professional communication training?" Which for young new grads would definitely be helpful.

No misinterpretation from me. I just don't think the premise is correct. First, my entire experience in nursing school incorporated such training, although there wasn't a specific "let's all learn how we should interact with each other" lesson. It was woven throughout: When you need to contact a physician, how will you do that? What information will you have on hand? How will you convey your concern effectively? Conflict management is another thing that was interwoven throughout with similar questions posed: How will you approach so-and-so?  If nothing else, didn't people learn (as an actual lesson/whole semester of training practically) therapeutic communication techniques and realize that these can be adjusted to be useful in many different scenarios? Even personal relationships?

Next, in my opinion things aren't going wrong primarily because people don't know how to communicate; a good portion of it is simply the common human reaction to the surroundings. Think of it as dominoes or a virus or being rear-ended at a stoplight or anything you want, but when exposed with enough force or frequency to something, one will have to possess a way-above-average level of skill and determination to avoid passing that thing on to those near-by. And sometimes it just almost can't be avoided. Workplace culture comes from the top down.  In nursing, there is often poor treatment coming from the top while the perpetrators make big noise about the staff's microagressions and "lateral violence."

Bottom line: If you direct and/or control others (are their superior in some way) and choose to treat them poorly, good luck getting a different result from them. Ask any parent or anyone who has had a position of authority over another in any capacity. Surely nearly all of us have observed this directly.

I am in favor of actual respectful treatment of all staff as a first measure that would be taken every bit as seriously as foibles at the staff level. So that if you're the DON and you come to a staff meeting and start disrespectfully ranting, your job will be in jeopardy because we don't tolerate that here. Then, once that culture is in place, if/when a staff-level employee is a hothead, an overly-defensive emotional cripple or in some other way terrorizing the group with their words and actions, they get one chance to change course. After that, they're out.

The problems people are complaining about stem directly from what is perpetuated (from the top down) and tolerated (at any level).

I will disagree with any suggestion that this is solely or primarily a staff-level problem or the idea that new nurses just don't know how to communicate these days. Bull. Nobody likes crap treatment. VERY few can hold their own against it.