Communication is a soft skill crucial to everyone. People either give or receive and even share information on a regular basis. Communication happens in varying contexts: at home, the moment you wake up, in academic endeavors, social situations, and even in medical education which then can significantly impact the quality of healthcare.
In the speck of medical care, nurses with other medical practitioners need to positively communicate through their patients to keep worry at bay. Their constructive communicative skills result in optimism in patients’ physical and emotional state, pain control, and better doctor-patient relationships (Zolnierek, 2009).
Prior to getting the license to enter the medical field, medical aspirants such as nurses undergo Objective Structured Clinical Examination. This examination does not only evaluate aspiring nurses’ clinical knowledge, but also their clinical reasoning and communication skills.
But how does communication play a key role in OSCE?
Communication in OSCE
Medical schools frequently use the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) to evaluate students’ clinical reasoning skills through interactions with standardized patients. It comprises various stations that replicate actual doctor-patient interactions in clinical settings. Communication skills can be evaluated using OSCE stations designed expressly to measure these abilities as well as in conjunction with other clinical abilities.
In a study by Piumatti, Cerutti, & Perron (2021), it showed medical students’ communication skills during the OSCE. Their study pointed out four dimensions of communication namely: empathy, content structure, verbal expression, and non-verbal expression. Let’s talk how each of this dimension relates to nurses and their Objective Structured Clinical Examination.
Let’s examine closely the different dimensions of communication and how it can be practiced to help you ace this aspect of OSCE.
Empathy
In this dimension, an aspiring nurse shows empathy through answering sympathetically to the verbal and non-verbal cues and needs of the standardized patient.
A circumstance where this dimension is observed happens when the student is interacting with the standardized patient and he/she shows responsiveness to the SPs condition. It is important that the student appropriately responds to obvious cues and needs of the SP to denote the presence of empathy. Negligence to minute details may lead to the absence of empathy of the student.
It is good to note that as a nurse, you must vicariously experience the feelings, thoughts, and experience of the patient even if they are not communicated in an explicit manner. A nurse sees beyond what the eyes meet.
Content Structure
This dimension refers to how the nurse organizes the conversation coherently and directs the flow of conversation.
An example of a good content structure follows coherence in conversation where he/she must be able to set the course of the conversation. Nurses know how to start and when the conversation should end as they explain the medical condition of their patients. Evidently, they do it in the most subtle way to not pose taunting emotion on the patients.
In taking the OSCE , there must be sufficient knowledge on how the student communicates the standardized patient’s condition in an organized manner to do away with potential confusion on the part of the standardized patient.
Verbal Expression
How is verbal expression observed in communication?
This dimension concerns how the student adapts to the manner of the patient in terms of wording, voice modulate, speech rate, and the likes.
An example scenario for this dimension is when the aspiring nurse communicates appropriately to the standardized patient with careful selection of the suitable words and volume of the voice. Explicitly, this helps the standardized patient comprehend easily the condition the aspiring nurse wishes to convey.
In most cases, patients know little to none of their conditions. They tend to heavily rely on nurses to understand their cases. Professional nurses carry out this dimension in a seamless and most subtle manner so patients feel secured and safe that everything will be alright in the end.
Non-verbal Expression
This dimension of communication happens when the student motivates the standardized patient in the conversation by using non-verbal techniques. Non-verbal expression includes facial expression, body movement and posture, eye contact, touch, space, and attention to inconsistencies.
Facial expressions mirror the inner emotion of a person. The human face is extremely expressive. It conveys countless emotions even without saying a word. Nurses display their bubbliest atmosphere in the hospitals or other medical care facilities. This expression radiates hope for patients who are under an unfortunate condition.
For students taking the OSCE, it is crucial that they manage to involve the standardized patient with their non-verbal expression. They should motivate the SP to participate and not do the other way around where they frustrate and antagonize the SP.
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References:
Graf, J. et al. 2020. Communication skills of medical students: survey of self- and external perception in a longitudinally based trend study. BMC Medical Education. Retrieved from
Zolnierek KBH, DiMatteo MR. Physician communication and patient adherence to treatment: a meta-analysis. Med Care. 2009;47(8):826.
