Analysis Of Shawn Jennings's Story: Nonverbal Communication

Shawn Jennings’ story started with nonverbal communication. When he was in locked in stage, he could not talk which made only non-verbal communication possible. Facial characteristics such as frowning or smiling add to the verbal message conveyed. However, this was not the case for Shawn Jennings because in the book he says he had no chance to convey his feelings through facial expression. It was really hard for nurses to understand his feelings. Sometimes, nurses would try to make him comfortable on their preference, but it made Jennings to feel worse in truth. It was eye contact, and instinct that allowed Jennings and the nurse to communicate. Jennings could not move his body, so it was nurses who had to make eye contact, which also could …show more content…
Later, Jennings used his *left hand to type to communicate and this opened new way. Jennings took step by step, starting from the essential point of nonverbal communication like body language to, eventually, speaking. Nonverbal and verbal communications were the styles of the communication used in this book, and at the same time, the therapeutic communication built in between Jennings and the …show more content…
In the book, nurses fostered healing relationships and responded to his emotions. In the client-centered care, the focus is more about the client than the actual problem. Jennings had a dynamic range of emotions when he was recovering. Jennings indicated he was being more emotional than normal, like crying over war movies, and bursting into tears with speeches of farewell. Nurses knew this was emotional labiality in post-stroke clients, such as Jennings therefore they did not ask any questions. Nurses knew this was natural, and they did not over react. They responded to his emotion appropriately with his condition. If Jennings had a different condition, the response might have been different, but nurses knew he was post-stroke client. Advantage of the client-centered communication is that nurses know the difference between clients, and arrange the needs and cares based on them. Sometimes this could be a disadvantage because nurses could think of the actual problem as a part of the