Therapeutic Communication with an Elderly Alzheimer's Patient
This paper presents a reflective case study of a therapeutic communication session between a nursing student and Helen, an 86-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease residing in a care facility. Following the recent loss of her husband, Helen was experiencing depression and social withdrawal. The paper narrates the session in detail, examines the specific techniques employed — including open-ended questioning, active listening, restatement, humor, and redirecting toward positive memories — and offers a candid critique of both strengths and weaknesses. Notably, the analysis acknowledges that Helen's Alzheimer's diagnosis posed unique challenges, particularly around short-term memory retention and the inability to address underlying grief directly.
- Introduction and Session Context: Patient background, setting, and session overview
- Narrative of the Communication Session: Chronological account of the interaction with Helen
- Technique Analysis: Techniques used: questioning, restatement, humor, redirection
- Critique of the Interaction: Strengths, weaknesses, and Alzheimer's-related limitations
- Conclusion and Lessons Learned: Reflections on professional growth and future improvement
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What makes this paper effective
- The narrative section is detailed and grounded in specific, observable behaviors — tracking Helen's body language, eye contact, and emotional shifts — which makes the clinical analysis that follows more credible and concrete.
- The self-critique section is honest and balanced, acknowledging real weaknesses such as failing to address Alzheimer's-specific follow-through and the underlying grief, rather than presenting the session as uniformly successful.
- The paper links communication techniques directly to patient outcomes, showing cause-and-effect reasoning (e.g., humor → rapport → deeper disclosure) that demonstrates clinical thinking.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates reflective practice — a core competency in nursing education. The writer moves systematically from description (what happened) to analysis (what techniques were used and why) to evaluation (what worked, what did not, and what should be done differently). This structure mirrors the Gibbs Reflective Cycle commonly used in healthcare training and gives the paper its logical progression.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with contextual background on the patient and setting, followed by a chronological narrative of the session. A separate technique analysis section identifies and justifies each communication strategy used. The critique section weighs strengths against weaknesses with specific reference to Alzheimer's-related limitations. The paper closes with a brief reflection on professional growth. This clear four-part architecture — context, narrative, analysis, evaluation — makes it easy to follow and assess.
Introduction and Session Context
The communication session evaluated in this paper took place on February 24, 2009, in the early afternoon at a residential care facility for the elderly. The conversation occurred between the narrator and a patient named Helen, an 86-year-old Caucasian woman with Alzheimer's disease. Helen's family visits frequently, and she had recently lost her husband. She had been feeling depressed and was in need of someone to talk with. The following sections evaluate the conversation, the techniques employed, and the overall effectiveness of the interaction.
References
Wilkinson, J. and Van Leuven, K. (2007). Fundamentals of Nursing. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.
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