Active Listening Skills In Healthcare

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One of the biggest takeaways from the Fine Art of Healthcare was to utilize and practice non-judgmental communication. I learned that listening is not the same as active listening. Even though someone may be listening, they could miss important details and/or misinterpret the message if they are not actively listening. During the program, we were instructed to ask our group neutral questions about how they perceived certain artwork. It was difficult to try and gain the perspective of others without trying to interject your own opinion. However, in the healthcare field, this is an extremely necessary skill.
As a nurse, I will need active listening skills to provide effective medical care. According to the joint commission, communication errors are responsible for “medication, wrong-site surgery, delays in treatment errors, occurrences of sexual harassment, confrontations and impacts quality of care and patient outcomes” (O’Daniel, 2008). By employing active listening skills with my coworkers, I can ensure that our messages are always communicated clearly. With my patients, I can make sure that I am receiving all of the necessary details for proper care.
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When active listening and non-judgmental communication are used, communication between team members improves. The amount of ideas being produced, and the effectiveness of the overall communication are increased among team members. This in turn leads to more effective teamwork. Teams can now work more efficiently as a result of improved communication. The former also improves patient centered care and patient safety. With an increase in good communication comes a decrease in patient related preventable accidents. For example, a mistake in medicine dosage resulting from a communication error could be avoided if all team members are actively listening to one another and providing nonjudgmental