Communication is key as a Traveling Nurse.

Career Advice

In many fields communication skills are highly valued and sought after. In healthcare, this is especially true. As a travel nurse or a travel allied healthcare professional, your ability to communicate effectively is critical to your success.

Patient safety and quality care often hinges on the strength of the team’s communication abilities. In fact, The Joint Commission states that “communication breakdowns, whether between care providers or between providers and their patients, is the primary root cause of the nearly 3,000 sentinel events – unexpected deaths and catastrophic injuries – that have been reported to The Joint Commission.”

Travel Nurse Talking to Patient
As a traveling healthcare professional, your ability to communicate effectively is critical to your success.

As a traveler you don’t have the benefit of working your shifts with familiar people who underst and your communication style and you may not underst and them easily at first either. You’ll need to take the extra step to listen closely and speak clearly to ensure you’re communicating effectively with your colleagues as well as patients. After a few weeks, you’ll begin to gain familiarity with your new environment and those strong communication skills will serve you well on the job as well as building relationships with your co-workers.

Of course at the end of your assignment you may be moving on to a new location and will start the process over again. Obviously your ability to communicate will play an important role in your success and enjoyment of your travel nursing or travel allied health assignments.

With so much emphasis on communication, it’s always a good idea to be aware of how you can improve your skills. So how does one go about improving their communication skills? Here is a list of links and tips to help you become a better communicator.

  • How To Learn Assertive Communication In Five Simple Steps – This article offers 5 simple steps to improve your assertive communication skills. Practicing these steps can improve your abilities as well as help to reduce stress resulting from conflicts.
  • How to Improve Communication Skills and Your Personal Style – This article will help you become aware of your communication style and the styles of others. You can use this knowledge to adjust your style and match other’s styles for more effective communication.
  • How to Improve Communication Skills – Good eye contact and active listening are 2 steps of this article’s 6 step process to improve your communication skills.
  • You can also look for books on the subject that can help you improve your skills. There are many titles to choose from and most of them will be able to give you some useful tips.