Techniques of Therapeutic Communication II: Focusing, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

Here are additional therapeutic communication techniques to improve communication between patients and nurses.

First, it is important that a nurse focuses on the specific details of the conversation and centers it on the key problems.

For example, a nurse educating a patient about insulin self-administration brings back the focus by saying, "Since we have spoken about the diabetic diet, we can now practice insulin self-administration."

Next, a nurse can paraphrase the patient's words to avoid misinterpretation.

For example, if the patient says, "My mind keeps diverting," the nurse can paraphrase:" Do you mean you have difficulty concentrating?".

Next, summarizing helps to analyze and highlight essential communication details, providing a sense of clarification and closure to the patient.

For example, a nurse can summarize diabetes management to a patient by saying, "During our session, we discussed your prescribed diabetic medications, exercise, and diet. Can you briefly review the steps with me?".

Besides these, a nurse may also use techniques like sharing hope, confrontation, empathy, clarifying, and silence to achieve desired outcomes.