Barriers to communication within healthcare setting

Barriers to communication within healthcare setting

What types of barriers in a healthcare setting would hinder communication between the nurse and the client?

Communication is a multi-dimensional, multi-factorial phenomenon and a dynamic, complex process, closely related to the environment in which an individual’s experiences are shared. Since the time of Florence Nightingale in 19th century until today, specialists and nurses have paid a great deal of attention to communication and interaction in nursing (Fleischer, Berg, Zimmermann, Wüste, & Behrens, 2009). Effective communication is an important aspect of patient care, which improves nurse-patient relationship and has a profound effect on the patient’s perceptions of health care quality and treatment outcomes (Li, Ang, & Hegney, 2012). Effective communication is the key element in providing high-quality nursing care, and leads to patient satisfaction and health (Cossette, Cara, Ricard, & Pepin, 2005). Effective communication skills of health professionals are vital to effective health care provision, and can have positive outcomes including decreased anxiety, guilt, pain, and disease symptoms. Moreover, they can increase patient satisfaction, acceptance, compliance, and cooperation with the medical team, and improve physiological and functional status of the patient; it also has a great impact on the training provided for the patient (Aghabarari, Mohammadi, & Varvani, 2009).

However, most studies have reported poor nurse-patient relationships (McCabe, 2004; Jangland, Gunningberg, & Carlsson, 2009; Gilmartin, & Wright 2008). Therefore, overall, nurse-patient communication has not led to personal satisfaction (Jangland, Gunningberg, & Carlsson, 2009). This is due to the fact that health care quality is strongly affected by nurse-patient relationship, and

lack of communication skills (or not using them) has a negative impact on services provided for the patients. The results of previous studies have shown that nurses have been trained to establish an effective communication; however, they do not use these skills to interact with their patients in clinical environments (Heaven, Clegg, & Maguire, 2006). Similarly, the results of other studies show that nurses and nursing professionals in general, have not made a lot of effort for establishing positive interactions with the patients. Many reported problems are related to the decreased sense of altruism among hospital staff including nurses (Bridges et al., 2013).

Communication pitfalls are 5-10% in general population and more than 15% in hospital admissions (Bartlett, Blais, Tamblyn, Clermont, & MacGibbon, 2008). Hospitalized patients in all ages often experience complex communication needs including mobility, sensory, and cognitive needs as well as language barriers during their stay (Downey & Happ, 2013). Hospitalization is potentially stressful and involves unpleasant experiences for patients and their families. All aspects of care and nursing are of high importance in communication with patients, as the patients consider interaction with the nurses as a key to their treatment. Also, through communication, nurses become familiar with the needs of their patients, and therefore, they can deliver high-quality health care services (Cossette et al., 2005; Sheldon, Barrett, & Ellington, 2006; Thorsteinsson, 2002). Patients with communication disability were three times more likely to experience medical or clinical complications compared to other patients (Bartlett et al., 2008).

Iran is a multicultural country with recognized cultural pluralism. In Iranian religious context, nurses are not allowed to gaze or touch patients of the opposite-sex, except in emergency cases. In addition, although Iranian formal language is Farsi, there are many dialects such as Lurish, Kurdish, and Baluchi, which might act as communication barriers between nurses and patients (Anoosheh, Zarkhah, Faghihzadeh, & Vaismoradi, 2009). In Iran, some communication facilitators and barriers have been reported including low educational preparation, governmental policies, and inappropriate environment as barriers, and religious and cultural norms, role modeling, and previous exposure of patients as facilitators (Rejeh, Heravi-Karimooi, & Vaismoradi, 2011).

The first step in eradicating the problems related to nurse-patient communication is two-sided (nurse and patient) awareness of communication barriers. It is of no doubt that building an effective relationship is dependent on the understanding of both sides of the interaction (Park & Song, 2005). In this study, we aimed to determine the barriers to nurse-patient relationship from the perspective of nurses and patients. Through this evaluation, we can improve the quality of nursing services and increase the satisfaction of patients and their families. We also assessed the barriers to using communication skills by the nurses in nurse-patient interactions.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

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Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource