Nursing requires a “feel” for the other. This capacity and art is termed the “interactive field” in nursing.  It is a major focus of psych-mental health nursing and is used throughout all of nursing. This interactive field in nursing is possible because of ‘Inter-brain synchrony” (Dumas, 2010). “Inter-brain synchrony” is the foundation for social competency and social interaction. It is this that is necessary for nurses to display their empathy and caring.  In fact, some see it as the ability to have insight about people. Inter-brain synchrony starts with the mother –infant interaction and continues through with the child’s interaction with family, friends & teachers. However, Dumas also noted that one of the major effects of social media and remote communication is the lack of inter-brain synchrony. The unanticipated ill-effects of electronic communication have been noted to result in brain changes and some children’s inability to self-regulate as well as the decrease in the capacity to “read” others. We’ve used the teaching of Therapeutic Communication to address and introduce aspects of social competency to our BSN students. Therapeutic Communication is a major vehicle for the development of caring and empathy in the nurse-patient relationship. The students get to practice these skills with each other before they practice them on the patients. The students noted that they feel more confident in interacting with patients after their exposure to and practicing of therapeutic communication skills. 

Audience Take Away
Today’s young people are missing some of the necessary people skills because of social media and remote communication. Focusing on developing therapeutic communication skills helps to counteract the social deficits in BSN students.

Dr. Burrell’s BSN is from Northeastern University; MSN’ from University of Hawaii at Manoa; PhD from the University of Utah and 1st Post-Doc from the C. G. Jung Institute-Zurich. She is a Professor of Nursing and is also Director of the Transcultural Nursing Center- HPU. She’s a Transcultural Nursing Scholar.