In this age of increasing reliance on technology, it is essential that the fundamentals of compassionate care and good communication remain at the heart of health care. This clear, concise guide to professional communication strategies helps nurses and other health care clinicians to navigate a wide variety of difficult patient and professional interactions. The book tackles such complex issues as dealing with demanding patients, maintaining professional boundaries, overcoming biases and stereotypes, managing clinician emotions, communicating bad news, challenging a colleague's clinical opinion, and other common situations.\The book is organized for easy access to each situation and includes a description of the problem, guidelines for addressing it, and tips for communicating effectively with patients and family members alike. Brief, to-the-point chapters help clinicians channel their clinical knowledge and good intentions into caring behaviors that allow the patient to more fully experience empathy and compassion. Based in principles of mindfulness and critical thinking, this is a resource that will be referred to again and again.

Encounters -- Mindfulness -- Empathy -- Listening -- Words -- Patients' emotions -- Time -- Boundaries -- Biases -- Clinician emotions -- Mistakes and apologies -- Hope and bad news -- Grief -- Expressing condolences -- Disgust -- Difficult encounters -- Somatic complaints -- Clinician conflict -- Substance abuse -- Cultivating mindfulness.