Minimum Course Hours: 30

Course Description

Learners will develop professional communication skills that promote the development, maintenance, and conclusion of therapeutic relationships with older adults, including those with chronic illnesses and/or mental health conditions, and clients requiring end-of-life care. Learners will further develop interprofessional communication knowledge and skills, including managing conflict and change.

Prerequisites: Successful completion of Level 1 courses and Consolidated Practice Experience 1

Corequisites: Professional Practice 2, Integrated Nursing Practice 2; Variations in Health 2; Health Promotion 2; Pharmacology 2

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the learner will be able to:

1. Explore how the current British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) LPN Professional Standards, Practice Standards, and Entry-Level Competencies guide professional communication with clients, family, and with the interprofessional team.
   • 1.1 Discuss the relevant professional documents that inform professional nursing communication.
2. Demonstrate communication skills that promote the development, maintenance, and conclusion of therapeutic relationships when caring for older adults, including those with chronic illnesses and/or mental health conditions.
   • 2.1 Demonstrate the ability to adjust communication appropriately for older adults through applied practice (e.g., role plays, scenarios, and case studies).
   • 2.2 Demonstrate effective active listening skills through applied practice (e.g., role plays, scenarios, and case studies).
   • 2.3 Demonstrate caring and respectful communication through applied practice (e.g., role plays, scenarios, and case studies).
3. Discuss communication barriers and challenges as well as communication strategies to use with clients who have sensory, language, and/or cognitive differences.
   • 3.1 Describe how dementia affects a client’s ability to communicate.
   • 3.2 Identify strategies to effectively communicate with clients experiencing dementia.
   • 3.3 Demonstrate communication techniques used with clients experiencing dementia through applied practice (e.g., role plays, scenarios, and case studies).
   • 3.4 Demonstrate effective communication skills during critical incidents through applied practice (e.g., role plays, scenarios, case studies).
4. Describe strategies for sharing information with clients and families in a respectful manner that is understandable, encourages discussion, and enhances participation in decision making.
   • 4.1 Identify strategies to increase client and family participation in decision making.
   • 4.2 Describe approaches to effectively communicate with clients, families, and team members in end‐of‐life care.
   • 4.3 Explain how to facilitate communication with clients, families, and team members experiencing loss and grieving.
5. Explore the principles of relational care with Indigenous Peoples, including communication approaches that are culturally safe, respectful, and compassionate.
   • 5.1 Use the BCCNM’s practice standard Indigenous Cultural Safety, Cultural Humility, and Anti-Racism to identify strategies that support person-led care.
6. Explore the role of stigma when providing care, including the potential impacts of verbal and written stigmatizing language.
   • 6.1 Discuss how to communicate both verbally and in writing in a non-stigmatizing way when caring for older adults, including those with chronic illnesses and/or mental health conditions.
   • 6.2 Use self-reflection to determine one’s choices and patterns of communication.
7. Identify and describe team communication tools (e.g., Situation-Background-Assessment, Recommendation [SBAR] tool and end-of-shift report).
   • 7.1 Identify the appropriate team member to refer and report client information.
   • 7.2 Demonstrate use of various communication tools (e.g., SBAR and end-of-shift report) through applied practice (e.g., role plays, scenarios, and case studies).
8. Practise giving and receiving feedback effectively with other health care team members, including communicating with unregulated care providers through applied practice (e.g., role plays, scenarios, case studies).
   • 8.1 Discuss the principles of giving and receiving feedback.
   • 8.2 Identify barriers to receiving feedback.
9. Describe communication approaches to delegating tasks to unregulated care providers.
   • 9.1 Review which tasks can be delegated to unregulated care providers and the parameters under which these tasks can be delegated.
   • 9.2 Explore the BCCNM documents that inform the ability of the LPN to delegate to unregulated care providers.

Course Concepts

Course outcomes will be met through examination and exploration of the following:

• Professional communication with older adults exhibiting sensory deficits, language deficits, cognitive deficits, aggression, and/or ineffective non-verbal approaches:
  • Active listening
  • Resolving conflict
  • Verbal de-escalation
  • Coordinating actions of others during an emergency
  • Problem solving and decision making
  • Adapting communication skills appropriate to the client
• Therapeutic relationships and relational practice with the older adult:
  • Establishing trust
  • Honouring diversity
  • Respecting cultural safety, cultural humility, and anti-racism with a focus on Indigenous-specific anti-racism
  • Displaying care, respect, empathy
  • Making environmental adaptations for the older adult with cognitive challenges
  • Dealing effectively with agitation and aggressive behaviours from clients including those who are cognitively intact and those with cognitive challenges
  • Sharing information with family in a respectful, understandable manner
  • Stigma and non-stigmatizing verbal and written language
  • Nurse-client boundaries
• Interprofessional communication:
  • Communicating client information appropriately to health care team members (transfer of accountability)
  • Using effective communication tools (e.g., SBAR)
  • Directing unregulated care providers with client care
  • Sharing knowledge with unregulated care providers and learners
  • Managing conflict
  • Managing change
  • Communicating assignments to unregulated care providers
  • Delegating to unregulated care providers