This document discusses active listening skills for nurses. It defines active listening as focusing attention on the speaker and restating or paraphrasing what they said. Active listening has benefits like avoiding misunderstandings and helping during conflicts. Examples are provided of nurses actively listening to patients' needs. Effective active listening involves facing the speaker, maintaining eye contact, responding supportively, avoiding distractions, and engaging with questions. Barriers to listening like biases and distractions are also outlined. The document concludes with how awareness of human factors in healthcare can help identify risks and improve safety.

1. NURSING ACADEMY OF EAST KOTAWARINGIN
www.akperkotim.ac.id

2. Anita
Email: anitacute345@gmail.com
Dinda Rose Pertiwi
email: DindaRosePertiwi@gmail.com
ACTIVE LISTENING

3. WHAT IS ACTIVE LISTENING?

4. Active listening is a structured form of
listening and responding that focuses the
attention on the speaker. It is a
communication technique that requires the
listener to re-state or paraphrase what they
have heard, in their own words.

5. The benefits of active listening are:
• it forces people to listen attentively to
others;
• it avoids misunderstandings as individuals
have to
confi rm that they have understood what
has been said;
• it helps during confl icts as solutions are
more likely to
be found if both parties are actively
listening.

6. ACTIVE LISTENING SKILLS EXAMPLES
Example 1
Patient: I am hungry. Please feed me this ice
cream.
Nurse: You sound like you need something to eat.
I bet you could feed yourself the ice cream if you
tried.
Patient: I can’t – feed me!
Nurse: Let me give you this special spoon, which
you may fi nd helpful to feed yourself and I’ll be
right here if you need me.
Example 2
Patient: I am hungry. Please feed me this ice
cream.
Nurse: You’ll need to start eating your ice cream
soon, or it’ll melt.
Patient: Feed me!
Nurse: Would you like a cup of tea?

7. HOW TO PERFORM EFFECTIVE ACTIVE
LISTENING SKILLS
Active listening may have to be learned and practised
to become perfect. The active listener should:
• face the speaker;
• maintain eye contact;
•respond appropriately to show your understanding:
validating statements and making statements of
support;
• try to minimise external distractions: give the speaker
your full attention;
• try to minimise internal distractions: listen to what is
being said and stay focused;
• focus solely on the person speaking to you and what
they are saying;
• avoid letting the speaker know how you handled a
similar situation;
• show good manners: even if the speaker is making
a complaint about you, allow them to fi nish before
defending yourself;
• engage yourself: ask questions for clarifi cation;
• keep an open mind.

8. BARRIERS TO LISTENING
1 your own bias or prejudices;
2 language differences or accents;
3 noise and external distractions;
4 worry, fear, anger: not being able to
focus;
5 lack of attention span (due to tiredness,
etc.).

9. IMPLEMENTING HUMAN FACTORS IN HEALTH
CARE
Some of the common factors that can increase
risk include:
• mental workload;
• distractions;
• the physical environment;
• physical demands;
• device/product design;
• process design.

10. Awareness of human factors in health care can help you
to:
• understand why health-care staff make errors and,
in particular, which ‘systems factors’ threaten patient
safety;
• improve the safety culture of teams and
organisations;
• enhance teamwork and improve communication
between health-care staff;
• improve the design of health-care systems and
equipment;
• identify ‘what went wrong’ and predict ‘what could go
wrong’;
• appreciate how certain tools may help to lessen the
likelihood of patient harm.