Ineffective Communication Techniques

NINE INEFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES

1. Giving advice - Telling the client what to do. Giving an opinion or making decisions for the client. Implies the client cannot handle life decisions and that the nurse is accepting responsibility for client.
2. False reassurance - Using clichés, pat answers, cheery words and comforting statements as an attempt to reassure client.
3. Changing the Subject - Introducing new topics inappropriately. May result from poor listening skills
4. Social Response - Responding in a way that either focuses attention on the nurse instead of the client, or is not goal-directed on behalf of the client.
5. Invalidation - Ignoring or denying the client's thoughts or feelings.
6. Overloading - Talking rapidly, changing subjects or asking for more information than can be absorbed at one time; for example, asking two questions at once.
7. Underloading - Remaining silent and unresponsive, not picking up cues and failing to give feedback.
8. Incongruence - Sending verbal and nonverbal messages that contradict one another; often called a double message.
9. Value Judgments - Giving one's own opinion, evaluating , moralizing or implying one's own values by using words such as "should," "ought," "good," or "bad."