In this instructional video, nurse‑educator Christina Rafano walks nursing students through the core principles and practical techniques of therapeutic communication, emphasizing how to apply them both on nursing exams and in real patient care. She defines therapeutic communication as the purposeful use of verbal and non‑verbal cues to make patients feel safe, heard, and respected during vulnerable moments. The lecture covers (1) the need for developmentally appropriate language and appropriate pacing/tone, (2) the impact of non‑verbal behaviors such as eye contact, facial expression, posture, and professional appearance, (3) active‑listening skills—including eye contact, paraphrasing, validation, and purposeful questioning—and the strategic use of silence to allow patients to process emotions. Rafano then outlines common non‑therapeutic responses to avoid, such as asking irrelevant personal questions, offering personal opinions or false reassurance, and using defensive or passive‑aggressive language. Throughout, she ties each point to how nursing school exams test application of these skills via case scenarios. The video concludes with promotional information for a free cheat‑sheet, a study checklist, and a Nursing SOS membership community that offers deeper instruction.
Chapters
In this video, we are walking through therapeutic communication and the different techniques that you would use to help foster a therapeutic relationship as a nurse with your patients. We'll walk through examples. So you're not just memorizing information for your nursing school exam, of course, but you will actually know how to use therapeutic communication in real life. Because that is what it's all about, being able to use your knowledge and apply it right to real life. Because let's be honest, when was the last time your nursing school exam tested you on how well you memorize stuff? Especially with something like therapeutic communication, they just don't do that, right? They're going to test you on how well you apply the information that you're learning. Can you go through a case scenario and answer a question using therapeutic communication? That is what they will test you on in nursing school. So don't worry. I am going to go through the main points for therapeutic communication that you will be tested on in your nursing nursing school exam. And of course, I have a free cheat sheet for you to help you learn things faster and easier in nursing school. So be sure to stay until the end of the video and I will let you know where you can get that. Now hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell and let's dive in. Therapeutic communication simply means how we communicate with our patients to support them as best as possible. Now, with every action, eye movement, word, both spoken or unspoken, we are communicating with our patients. We are caring for people during what might be the most life altering event and often one of their most vulnerable states. This is not something that we should take lightly. It is our job as the nurse to foster a therapeutic environment with therapeutic communication in order to help the patient feel safe, feel heard and respected. Now there is communication through our verbal or our written words that portray our message. And how we go about doing this can have a big impact on how our message is perceived. Now the words we choose and how we present them must be appropriate for our audience. Now for example, you wouldn't tell a 2 year old that you were going to give them their vancomycin through their iv. No, instead you would say something like, I'm going to give you some medicine to help your tummy feel better and I'm going to put it right here in this tubi. I'll just be pressing some buttons and the machine, it will beep. But you can just keep playing with your mommy. See the difference? Now the words we choose need to be developmentally appropriate. And your nursing school exams are going to make sure that you know how to do this. So part of learning how to become a nurse is learning how to communicate with your patients, with people. Now our medical terminology can be really confusing, right? Think back to when you were just starting your nursing courses, your first day of nursing school. Now think about how overwhelming all of that vocabulary was for you. Now, your patient will feel the same way if we don't use appropriate words for them specifically. Now how about if I talk really fast or really loud or start whispering and talking really slow? Now how does that make you feel? Neither one of those is great thing right? Now, pacing and the tone of your voice can play a big part in how your message is perceived. Now you wouldn't want to yell at your patient or say did you leave a urine sample in the bathroom for me? No. You would instead quietly and discreetly ask them that. The same thing goes with pacing. We would not be going to just stop talking at some point. That would be unnatural and leave room for interpretation with the patient. No, we don't want that to happen. You would just want to make sure that the timing is appropriate and that you communicate in a clear and concise, precise manner. That was so awkward, so weird. Right. Now let's talk about non verbal communication. So our body positioning, our eye movements, the tone of your voice, your facial expressions, our posture, it can all play a big part in how our patients perceive us and entrust us to care for them competently. Right. Now, our physical appearance, clean and neat clothes or scrubs, a hair that is contained or calmed, her posture, how we move through our environment, it will say a lot about about us and our capability and how we can care for our patients. Now let's say if we are hurriedly rushing around all of our patients rooms, in and out of their rooms, with wrinkled clothes, hair in our faces, it'll give the impression that maybe we're not as organized, we don't have the supplies that we need to do our job correctly and competently care for our patients. Now remember, we are brought into our patients lives usually at one of the most vulnerable times in their life. Now we want to make sure that our patients feel safe and that they're in competent hands under our care. And this includes how we present ourselves. Now, our eye contact facial expressions often give away our true feelings and our emotions, even when the verbal words might not necessarily match. Now it takes self awareness to acknowledge these unconscious facial expressions that we all have and can take time to be aware of those when we're doing it now. But it's Very important in order to maintain and foster that therapeutic environment for our patients that we are aware we have that self awareness of that self bias and our possible facial expressions that might occur because of that. Okay, so we covered verbal and nonverbal communication. Now let's dive into active listening, which is another important technique that is used in therapeutic communication. Now, you probably do this already and maybe aren't even aware of it when it's happening, or you can probably pinpoint someone in your life who you would go to to talk to about pretty much anything. So we all have one of those people, right? They are probably really good at active listening. That's why we like to talk to them, right? So active listening involves being attentive to both nonverbal and verbal cues and facilitating patient communication. Now, making eye contact with your patients, facing them but at an appropriate distance, and relax to help your patients feel relaxed as well. Ask for clarity or paraphrase to show that you are listening. Validate what your patients are saying and their feelings, and ask relevant, relevant, relevant, relevant questions to show that you're interested. Now, silence is another technique that might not be one that you have thought of before, but using silence to help the patient sort through their feelings can be super helpful and super useful. Now, silence helps give them the opportunity to talk freely or to sit and process. Now, silence can take some getting used to, especially if you're someone like me who just likes to talk all the time. But it will help foster a therapeutic relationship with your patients. So since we've covered how you should be talking and communicating with your patients, let's chat a little bit about some things that are not so therapy therapeutic. So these would be the answers that you would not want to pick on your nursing school exams. Now, the ones that they might sneak in there to really test your knowledge. But don't worry, we're going to go over them so that you know exactly what not to do or what answers not to pick. Now, non therapeutic techniques would be asking things like personal questions that are relevant to the patient's care. Personal questions that aren't relevant don't serve a purpose to your patient's care. They just are out of cue curiosity or your personal interest. So those would not be therapeutic techniques that we would use. And this also goes for giving personal opinions such as saying something like, well, if I were you, I wouldn't pursue any further treatments. That's not therapeutic. It's not conducive or empowering to your patients rights to make their own decisions. Now, as nurses, we want to make sure that we are always fostering a relationship and offering a safe place for discussion of therapy options without interjecting our own opinions and biases into them as well as much as possible possible. Now another non therapeutic technique would be using an automatic response or a false reassurance such as as you get older you will get more confused like that's just a part of life or saying something to a terminally ill patient like don't worry, you will be fine. Those are not conducive to a therapeutic relationship, right? Those are no nos. Don't say those things. Now. The same goes for defensive, passive aggressive responses. Those are not going to help foster a therapeutic relationship with your as the nurse, we have to take on that role and responsibility that comes with it very seriously, which can mean keeping your opinions to yourself or holding back even when an argument is being ensued by a patient or a family member. It's our responsibility to be a voice of reason and bring calm to the situation instead of succumbing to the level of our patients and families who are experiencing a traumatic, difficult or unexpected event. You, my friend, are going to be an outstanding nurse. I believe in you. Now as the nurse, it is our responsibility to make sure that our patients feel heard, feel safe and confident in our care because ultimately everything we do affects them and their outcome. It is our job to make sure that we foster that therapeutic relationship and continue to enhance it as we care for our patients. Now this is just one of the many topics that are covered more in depth inside the Nursing SOS Membership community. Now you are not alone in nursing school my friend. So if you are struggling with fundamentals of nursing school, be sure to check out the step by step lecture videos that we have for you inside the Nursing SOS Membership community. I am here to hold your hand every step of the way. Now the link is down below in the description for you to check out all the details and make sure to download the free Nursing School study checklist that we have for you that walks you through how to study in nursing school step by step. The link again is in the description below for you to check that out. And if you like this video make sure to hit that like button. Leave a comment below and let me know that you loved it. Share it with your friends and of course make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss a video and click on one of these videos right here so you can keep rocking nursing school. And as always friend, go become the nurse that God created. Only you to be. And I'll catch you in the next video. Take care. Bye Bye.
