Exploring nurses’ use of language with older people
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Exploring nurses’ use of language with older people

Peter Draper Senior lecturer in nursing, Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull
Jane Wray Research fellow, Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull
Sandra Burley Lecturer, Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull

Patients’ wellbeing can be affected by the way staff talk to them. Peter Draper and colleagues describe a creative writing project that helped heighten sensitivity to the power of words in care

The authors discuss ways in which nurses speak to older people. Research shows that the words nurses use can have a powerful effect on the wellbeing of older people.

An experimental project developed at the University of Hull is described in which creative writing techniques were used to increase nursing students’ and staff’s sensitivity to the importance of language in care. The project enabled participants to co-create a body of work that was subsequently displayed in the faculty reception, and it showed how trusting relationships could be developed between participants. The authors are working to extend the project by finding ways to embed creative writing in the undergraduate nursing curriculum.

Nursing Older People. 25, 9, 18-23. doi: 10.7748/nop2013.11.25.9.18.e509

Correspondence

p.r.draper@hull.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Peer review

This article has been subject to double blind peer review

Received: 29 July 2013

Accepted: 06 September 2013

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