Home Care Services & Well-Chosen Words

Precision of language is important for both. But caregivers and nurses learn the emotional impact of words, wisely or poorly chosen, on the job, directly from our patients. There’s seldom an opportunity to edit or revise when words are spoken. Words cannot be unsaid.

Since patients rate nursing skills by my words, the ability to pass the ‘bs test’ is more important than ever before in our career

As a navigator, our caregiver have impressed a patient or two (and helped them get proper care) by recognizing over the phone that the symptoms they described were cardiac related and not the side effects of cancer treatment. But for the most part, words are the tool we rely on to prove our value.

It’s the nature of caregivers and nurses to want to comfort our patients.

Choosing the right words to comfort them, or at least to decrease their fear and anxiety, while at the same time caring or treating their illness or injury is challenging.It’s realistic to expect that once in a while we will choose the wrong words, despite our good intentions”. “Using words to comfort and heal is a skill expected of nurses, whether we aspire to become writers or not. While choosing the right words takes practice, and sometimes self-forgiveness, providing comfort with well-chosen words is one of the most rewarding aspects of nursing.