Expertise in Everyday Nurse-Patient Conversations: The Importance of Small Talk

"Unless someone sees and hears you, how do you know you exist?" Meanings of confidential conversations - a hermeneutic study of the experiences of patients with palliative care needs

BACKGROUND

Patients with palliative care needs live with the reality of limited time due to illness or age, eliciting emotional and existential responses. A failure to address their existential needs can lead to significant suffering. A person-centred approach is paramount to effectively address these needs, emphasising holistic care and effective communication. Although existing communication models focus on predefined frameworks, a need exists to explore more spontaneous and confidential conversations between patients and nurses. Confidential conversations have the potential to build therapeutic relationships and provide vital emotional support, highlighting the need for further research and integration into palliative care practice. This study aims to more deeply understand the meaning of confidential conversations for patients with palliative care needs.

METHODS

In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 patients in the context of specialised palliative care. A hermeneutic analysis was used to gain a deeper understanding of the meanings of the conversations.

RESULTS

The patients had varying experiences and wishes concerning confidential conversations. They strived for self-determination in finding confidants, seeking trust and comfort in their interactions with nurses. Trust was crucial for creating a safe space where patients could express themselves authentically. In shared belonging, confidential conversations with a nurse provided validation and relief from life's challenges. Experiences of feeling unheard or rejected by a nurse could intensify loneliness, prompting individuals to withdraw and remain silent. Regardless of the motives behind their choices, it was crucial that patients felt respect and validation in their decisions. Their autonomy could thus be recognised, and they felt empowered to make decisions based on their unique preferences.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients value trust and understanding, particularly in confidential conversations with nurses, which offer solace, validation and empowerment. However, indifference can increase patients' suffering, fostering self-doubt and reluctance to engage further. To address this, health care can prioritise empathic communication skills, offer ongoing support to nurses, and promote continuity in care through investment in training and resources. Additionally, adopting a person-centred approach in confidential conversations is crucial, considering patients' varying preferences.

Associated factors of nurse-sensitive patient outcomes: A multicentred cross-sectional study in psychiatric inpatient hospitals

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN?: The nurse-patient relationship in mental health care is an important focus of mental health nursing theories and research. There is limited evidence about which factors influence nurse-sensitive patient outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship. This hinders the development, planning, delivering, and quality assurance of the nurse-patient relationship in nursing practice and nursing education. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: To our best knowledge, this is the first study to examine associations between nurse-sensitive patient outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship and a range of patient characteristics and relationship-contextual factors. In this study, we found that gender, age, hospital characteristics, nurse availability when needed, nurse contact, and nurse stimulation were associated with the scores on the nurse-sensitive patient outcome scale. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Having insight into the factors associated with nurse-sensitive patient outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship can help nurses, nursing students, nursing management and also patients to enhance the nurse-patient relationship, trying to influence outcomes of nursing care. ABSTRACT: Introduction The lack of evidence on patient characteristics and relational-contextual factors influencing nurse-sensitive patient outcomes of a nurse-patient relationship is a possible threat to the quality and education of the nurse-patient relationship. Aim To measure nurse-sensitive patient outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship and to explore the associations between nurse-sensitive patient outcomes and a range of patient characteristics and relational-contextual factors. Method In a multicenter cross-sectional study, 340 inpatients from 30 units in five psychiatric hospitals completed the Mental Health Nurse-Sensitive Patient Outcome Scale. Descriptive, univariate and Linear Mixed Model analyses were conducted. Results Overall, patient-reported outcomes were moderate to good. Female participants, nurse availability when needed, more nurse contact and nurse stimulation were associated with higher outcomes. Age differences were observed for some of the outcomes. Outcomes also varied across hospitals but were not related to the number of times patients were hospitalized or to their current length of stay in the hospital. Discussion The results may help nurses to become more sensitive and responsive to factors associated with nurse-sensitive patient outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship. Implications The nurse-sensitive results can support nurses in designing future nurse-patient relationships.

"Daring to deal with the difficult and unexpected" registered nurses' confidential conversations with patients with palliative care needs: a qualitative interview study

BACKGROUND

In palliative care, registered nurses provide advanced nursing care to relieve patients' symptoms and increase their quality of life based on physical, mental, social and existential dimensions. Conversations, often about existential issues, are an important part of nursing and can affect quality of life positively. Confidential conversations between patients and nurses occur naturally while other nursing activities are being performed. Despite their great importance for palliative care these are rarely described.

AIM

To gain a deeper understanding of how nurses in palliative care experience and describe confidential conversations with patients.

METHOD

Secondary analysis of data from 17 open-ended face-to-face interviews with registered nurses in palliative care was conducted. Qualitative content analysis using an inductive approach was used to gain a deeper understanding and analyse the latent content.

RESULTS

The confidential conversation was considered an important part of palliative care and is the nurse's responsibility. This responsibility was described as complex and placed various demands on the nurses, both personal and professional. A prerequisite for the conversation was the interpersonal relationship. The conversation allowed the patient to process important matters not previously addressed or put into words. It had no predetermined content, was unplanned and entirely on the patient's terms. For nurses the conversation could be experienced both as draining and a source of power and strength. The nurses also described safeguarding the patient through the conversation.

CONCLUSION

Nurses' confidential conversations with patients are essential in palliative care and must be highlighted more to increase the quality of palliative care. The confidential conversations often have an existential content and are challenging for the nurses. Therefore, nurses need time, knowledge, and supervision to increase their conversation skills.

Implementing A person-centred CommunicaTION (ACTION) educational intervention for in-home nursing assistants - a study protocol

BACKGROUND

In this study, the focus is on how to support the competence development needed for nursing assistants in home care. Home care services for older persons can be challenging concerning the nature of the interpersonal interaction and communication needed to care for and respond to the diverse needs of older people who seek to live well in our communities. This implies a need to offer more person-centred care (PCC) to older persons. However, there is a lack of knowledge on how to develop such competence. We, therefore, developed A Person-centred CommunicaTION (ACTION) programme, which is a web-based educational intervention aimed at supporting competence development for nursing assistants. The research objective is to evaluate the ACTION programme with respect to participants' responses to and the effect of the intervention.

METHODS

A multicentre case-control study with pre- and post-assessments was designed. The ACTION programme will be implemented at home care units, in two different geographic areas in Sweden. A total of 300 nursing assistants will be recruited: 150 for the intervention group and 150 for the control group. We will evaluate the impact measures and the process. Pre- and post-assessments will be performed with data collected via a) audio recordings of communication, b) a questionnaire on self-efficacy communication skills, PCC, empathy and job satisfaction, c) user data, evaluation forms, field notes and observations, and d) interviews. The data will be analysed with descriptive and analytic statistics and/or qualitative methods for meanings.

DISCUSSION

This study has the potential to contribute to the evidence supporting competence development required to offer person-centred and quality home care to older persons and to meet upcoming needs for flexible and easily accessible competence development.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ISRCTN64890826. Registered 10 January 2022, https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN64890826.

Registered nurse-patient communication research: An integrative review for future directions in nursing research

AIM

To explore communication research in nursing by investigating the theoretical approaches, methods, content and perspectives in research on real-time registered nurse (RN)-patient communication.

DESIGN

An integrative review of real-time communication between RNs and patients.

DATA SOURCES

Empirical research papers were searched in PubMed, CINAHL Plus and Medline. The results from the database searches were supplemented with results from manual searches in reference lists.

REVIEW METHODS

A total of 1369 articles published between January 1996 and December 2021 were screened, which resulted in the inclusion of 52 articles.

RESULTS

The integration of various theories, such as nursing or communication theories, is weak in most of the included studies. RN-patient communication appears to influence relationship building. Even when nurses strive to meet patients' needs, they often focus primarily on nursing routines and physical care. The topic of the communication varies depending on the situation and different communication styles are used. When a patient-centred approach is adopted, the interpersonal communication becomes quite symmetrical, with complementary roles of nurses and patients. Within a more asymmetric communication context, nurses dominate communication, choose topics and function as instructors. How the nurses communicated subsequently influenced the patients' communication styles and strategies.

CONCLUSION

Communication is multifaceted, contains different strategies and is important for building trust and facilitating patient-centred care. The importance of RNs' communication for interaction and relationship-building seems to be well established within research, but few studies focused on patients' communication with RNs.

IMPACT

This integrative review gives an overview of the width and depth of observational studies on RN-patient communication research. The variety of studies indicates that this area is a less well-grounded field of research. Future research is warranted to support nurses in their communication, especially regarding the exploration of patients' communication and desired communication skills in nurse-patient interactions.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No patient or public contribution was included in this integrative review.

The hidden benefits of patient encounters

BACKGROUND

Whilst it is widely acknowledged that health care professionals (HCPs) learn from patient encounters, research exploring what HCPs learn from their meetings with patients is relatively sparse, particularly in the context of postgraduate training. Moreover, there are few research studies that examine the contribution of patient encounters to HCP education from both HCP and patient perspectives. This study set out to explore HCPs learning from patient encounters from both HCP and patient perspectives.

METHODS

Qualitative descriptive design was used to conduct this study. Using purposive sampling, we recruited participants from three different groups in a single department of paediatrics in a teaching hospital. Data was collected through interviews, which were transcribed and analysed for key themes.

FINDINGS

Patients felt that they played a central role in clinical education and highlighted their ability to educate postgraduate HCPs about their lived experiences of disease. HCPs highlighted the unique insight into a chronic illness gained from patient accounts, essential to developing patient and family orientated approaches to care. HCPs reported that they developed professionally, learning to adapt their negotiation and educational strategies.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlights the importance of patient encounters as critical contributors to HCPs understanding of the lived experiences of patients with chronic disease, and offers insights into how parents view their contribution to clinical education. Much of this learning is embedded and implicit, which suggests that HCP trainees need to develop better in the moment awareness of what they are learning from their meetings with patients and their families.

Patient-reported outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship in psychiatric inpatient hospitals: A multicentred descriptive cross-sectional study

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Psychiatric and/or mental health nurses are struggling to measure the outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship. Collecting nurse-sensitive patient outcomes is a strategy to provide outcomes of a nurse-patient relationship from patients' perspectives. Because there was no validated scale, the Mental Health Nurse-Sensitive Patient Outcome-Scale (six-point Likert-scale) was recently developed and psychometrically evaluated. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This is the first study using the Mental Health Nurse-Sensitive Patient Outcome-scale to measure nurse-sensitive patient outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship in psychiatric hospitals. Moderate to good average scores for the MH-NURSE-POS total (4.42) and domains scores (≥4.09). are observed. Especially outcomes related to 'motivation' to follow and stay committed to the treatment received high average scores (≥4.60). Our results are consistent with the patient-reported effect(s) of relation-based nursing in qualitative research. The scores generate evidence to support the outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship and implicates that further investment in (re)defining and elaborating nurse-patient relationships in mental healthcare is meaningful and justified. More comparative patient-reported data can determine how nurse-sensitive patient outcomes are affected by the patient, nurse, and context. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Demonstrating patient-reported outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship can be important to enhance the therapeutic alliance between nurses and patients, organize responsive nursing care, and create nursing visibility in mental healthcare. Further nursing staff training on interpersonal competencies, such as self-awareness and cultural sensitivity, can be pivotal to achieving the patient-reported outcomes for inpatients with mental health problems.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Identifying patient-reported outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship is a priority in inpatient mental healthcare to guide clinical decision-making and quality improvement initiatives. Moreover, demonstrating nurse-sensitive patient outcomes can be a strategy to avoid further erosion of the specialism of psychiatric and/or mental health nursing.

AIM/QUESTION

To measure nurse-sensitive patient outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship.

METHOD

In a multicentred cross-sectional study, 296 inpatients admitted to five psychiatric hospitals completed the recently developed and validated Mental Health Nurse-Sensitive Patient Outcome-Scale (MH-NURSE-POS). The MH-NURSE-POS consists of 21 items (six-point Likert-scale) in four domains: 'growth', 'expression', 'control', and 'motivation'.

RESULTS

Participants displayed moderate to good average scores for the MH-NURSE-POS total (4.42) and domain scores (≥4.09). Especially outcomes related to 'motivation' to follow and stay committed to the treatment received high average scores (≥4.60).

DISCUSSION

The results demonstrate that patients perceive the nurse-patient relationship and the care given by psychiatric and/or mental health nurses as contributing to their treatment.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICES

Patient-reported outcomes can guide nurses and managers to provide and organize nursing care and to build a nurse-patient relationship that has a positive impact on these outcomes. Additionally, outcomes can create nursing visibility as a profession in- and outside mental healthcare.

Am I safe? An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Vulnerability as Experienced by Patients With Complications Following Surgery

Abdominal surgery carries with it risks of complications. Little is known about patients' experiences of post-surgical deterioration. There is a real need to understand the psychosocial as well as the biological aspects of deterioration in order to improve care and outcomes for patients. Drawing on in-depth interviews with seven abdominal surgery survivors, we present an idiographic account of participants' experiences, situating their contribution to safety within their personal lived experiences and meaning-making of these episodes of deterioration. Our analysis reveals an overarching group experiential theme of vulnerability in relation to participants' experiences of complications after abdominal surgery. This encapsulates the uncertainty of the situation all the participants found themselves in, and the nature and seriousness of their health conditions. The extent of participants' vulnerability is revealed by detailing how they made sense of their experience, how they negotiated feelings of (un)safety drawing on their relationships with family and staff and the legacy of feelings they were left with when their expectations of care (care as imagined) did not meet the reality of their experiences (care as received). The participants' experiences highlight the power imbalance between patients and professionals in terms of whose knowledge counts within the hospital context. The study reveals the potential for epistemic injustice to arise when patients' concerns are ignored or dismissed. Our data has implications for designing strategies to enable escalation of care, both in terms of supporting staff to deliver compassionate care, and in strengthening patient and family involvement in rescue processes.

'I Have to Explain to him': How Companions Broker Mutual Understanding Between Patients with Intellectual Disabilities and Health Care Practitioners in Primary Care

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience marked health inequalities. This is attributable, at least in part, to suboptimal healthcare communication with health care practitioners (HCPs) whereby patients with ID and HCPs struggle to understand each other. Companions who attend healthcare appointments with patients with ID can support the communicative exchange between patient and HCP, but their involvement can have unintended consequences. This article uses Conversation Analysis (CA) to analyse video-recorded data from primary care health checks involving 24 patients with ID. This method shows that companions use their linguistic and experiential resources to intervene as 'brokers' to address real or potential threats to mutual understanding between patients with ID and HCPs. Their interventions can fill in the gaps in knowledge and understanding of the other parties, but also run the risk of deskilling the others in the interaction, by relieving them of the obligation to address communication breakdown directly themselves.

Talking it better: conversations and normative complexity in healthcare improvement

In this paper, we consider the role of conversations in contributing to healthcare quality improvement. More specifically, we suggest that conversations can be important in responding to what we call 'normative complexity'. As well as reflecting on the value of conversations, the aim is to introduce the dimension of normative complexity as something that requires theoretical and practical attention alongside the more recognised challenges of complex systems, which we label, for short, as 'explanatory complexity'. In brief, normative complexity relates to the inherent difficulty of deciding what kinds of changes are 'improvements' or, more broadly, what is valuable in healthcare. We suggest that explanatory and normative complexity intersect and that anyone interested in healthcare improvement needs to be sensitive to both. After briefly introducing the idea of normative complexity, we consider some contrasting examples of conversations, reflecting on how they do and might contribute to healthcare quality. We discuss both conversations that are deliberately organised and facilitated ('orchestrated conversations') and more informally occurring and routine conversations. In the first half of the paper, we draw on some examples of orchestrated and routine conversations to open up these issues. In the second half of the paper, we bring some more theoretical lenses to bear on both conversations and normative complexity, summarise what we take to be the value of conversations and draw together some of the implications of our discussion. In summary, we argue that conversations can play a crucial role in negotiating the normative complexity of healthcare quality improvement because of their capacity to hold together a plurality of perspectives, to contribute and respond to emergence and to help underpin institutional conditions for empathy and imagination.

A qualitative study of evidence-based therapeutic process in mental health services in Ghana- context-mechanisms-outcomes

Background

Evidence-based clinical practice is an inherent component of mental health professional practice in developed countries. However, little is known about professional perspectives of evidence-based practice in mental in developing countries such as Ghana. This paper describes the processes involved in the delivery of best practice in Ghana. The paper reports on a realistic evaluation of mental health nurses and allied health professionals’ views on the evidence-based therapeutic process in Ghana.

Methods

A purposive sample of 30 mental health professionals (MHPs) was recruited to participate in semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. A program theory of Context + Mechanism = Outcome (CMO) configuration was developed from the analysis.

Results

The thematic analysis identified two contexts, mechanism and outcome configurations (themes): 1) technical competency stimulates evidence-based mental health services, and 2) therapeutic relationship building ensures effective interaction. The study demonstrates that contextual factors (technical competencies and therapeutic relationship building) together with mechanisms (intentional and unintentional) help to promote quality in mental health service provision. However, contextual factors such as a lack of sign language interpreters yielded unintended outcomes including barriers to communication with providers for consumers with hearing impairment and those from linguistic minority backgrounds.

Conclusion

Government stakeholders and policymakers should prioritise policies, periodic monitoring and adequate financial incentives to support the mechanisms that promote technical competence in MHPs and the building of therapeutic relationship.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-06993-1.

Process evaluation of the ACTION programme: a strategy for implementing person-centred communication in home care

BACKGROUND

There is currently a strong emphasis on person-centred care (PCC) and communication; however, little research has been conducted on how to implement person-centred communication in home care settings. Therefore, the ACTION (A person-centred CommunicaTION) programme, which is a web-based education programme focusing on person-centred communication developed for nurse assistants (NAs) providing home care for older persons, was implemented. This paper reports on the process evaluation conducted with the aim to describe and evaluate the implementation of the ACTION programme.

METHODS

A descriptive design with a mixed method approach was used. Twenty-seven NAs from two units in Sweden were recruited, and 23 of them were offered the educational intervention. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from multiple sources before, during and after the implementation. Quantitative data were used to analyse demographics, attendance and participation, while qualitative data were used to evaluate experiences of the implementation and contextual factors influencing the implementation.

RESULTS

The evaluation showed a high degree of NA participation in the first five education modules, and a decrease in the three remaining modules. Overall, the NAs perceived the web format to be easy to use and appreciated the flexibility and accessibility. The content was described as important. Challenges included time constraints; the heavy workload; and a lack of interaction, space and equipment to complete the programme.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that web-based education seems to be an appropriate strategy in home care settings; however, areas for improvement were identified. Our findings show that participants appreciated the web-based learning format in terms of accessibility and flexibility, as well as the face-to-face group discussions. The critical importance of organizational support and available resources are highlighted, such as management involvement and local facilitation. In addition, the findings report on the implementation challenges specific to the dynamic home care context.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

This intervention was implemented with nursing assistants, and the evaluation only involved nursing staff. Patients were not part of this study. According to the ICMJE, registration was not necessary ().

Trust, conversations and the 'middle space': A qualitative exploration of the experiences of physiotherapists with clients with suicidal thoughts and behaviours

In Australia, physiotherapists are registered healthcare practitioners who possess the knowledge and skills to care for clients with poor physical health as a result of musculoskeletal, neurological, and respiratory conditions. Although physiotherapists are not considered a primary profession in the Australian mental health workforce, the association between suicide and poor physical health suggests that they may encounter clients with suicidal thoughts and behaviours. We used a qualitative approach inspired by phenomenology to explore the experiences of nine physiotherapists who encountered clients with suicidal thoughts and behaviours. We used a combination of focus groups and in-depth interviews to collect this data. The data were analysed inductively using framework analysis. The main themes identified in the data were: i) the importance of trust, ii) the mechanism of conversation, and iii) the 'middle space'. The middle space refers to the experience of working with clients at risk of low or medium risk of suicide. A trusting practitioner-client relationship was reported to be essential in facilitating the disclosure of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Physiotherapists also reported that less structured subjective assessments encourage clients to talk more openly, which in turn facilitates the disclosure of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Once the disclosure of suicidal thoughts and behaviours occurred, physiotherapists reported a lack of confidence regarding role clarity and issues associated with this. Difficulties were most evident during encounters with clients with low to medium suicide risk due to a lack of confidence in the accuracy of assessment of these clients. The findings suggest that physiotherapists are well placed to detect and/or receive disclosure of suicidal thoughts and behaviours, as well as the need for physiotherapists to be trained in how to support clients who disclose suicidal thoughts and behaviours.

Attributes of person-centred communication: A qualitative exploration of communication with older persons in home health care

BACKGROUND

Previous research points to challenges related to the home healthcare of older persons and to the complexity of communication. Although person-centred care has been advocated widely, there remains a need for in-depth knowledge on how to enable person-centred and supportive communication in the care of older persons.

AIM

The aim of this study was to explore attributes of person-centred communication between nurses and older persons being cared for in their home.

METHODS

A descriptive study with a qualitative approach was conducted. A data set from the COMHOME-study consisting of 77 audio-recorded home healthcare visits between registered nurses and older persons was analysed with a method for qualitative thematic analysis.

RESULTS

The findings indicate that the attributes of person-centred communication comprise recognising, inviting and involving older persons. To facilitate this form of communication, attentiveness and responsiveness on the part of RNs seemed significant. Person-centred communication was facilitated when the RNs used verbal expressions to emphasise and acknowledge the older persons' views and were attentive to their emotions and expressions.

CONCLUSION

The nurses' attentiveness and responsiveness seems important for person-centred communication with older persons. Communication skills are needed to recognise, invite and involve older persons in their care and to support their health and well-being. Implication for practice The importance of communication which facilitate a person-centred approach by nurses should be acknowledged when caring for older persons and included in education and training.

Striving to establish a care relationship-Mission possible or impossible?-Triad encounters between patients, relatives and nurses

Background

When patients, relatives and nurses meet, they form a triad that can ensure a good care relationship. However, hospital environments are often stressful and limited time can negatively affect the care relationship, thus decreasing patient satisfaction.

Objective

To explain the care relationship in triad encounters between patients, relatives and nurses at a department of medicine for older people.

Design

A qualitative explorative study with an ethnographic approach guided by a sociocultural perspective.

Method

Participatory observations and informal field conversations with patients, relatives and nurses were carried out from October 2015‐September 2016 and analysed together with field notes using ethnographic analysis.

Result

The result identifies a process where patients, relatives and nurses use different strategies for navigating before, during and after a triad encounter. The process is based on the following categories: orienting in time and space, contributing to a care relationship and forming a new point of view.

Conclusion

The result indicates that nurses, who are aware of the process and understand how to navigate between the different perspectives in triad encounters, can acknowledge both the patient's and relatives’ stories, thus facilitating their ability to understand the information provided, ensure a quality care relationship and strengthen the patient's position in the health‐care setting, therefore making the mission to establish a care relationship possible.

Communication with patients in intensive care units: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Patients in intensive care units are generally more conscious and alert when they are on mechanical ventilation than in previous years because of the many potential benefits of being under less sedation. The endotracheal tube blocks the vocal cords when patients are on ventilation, thus making it impossible to speak. Many patients report that they struggle to make themselves understood.

AIM

The aim of this study was to assess previous knowledge about interaction and communication between health care personnel and conscious and alert patients under mechanical ventilation in intensive care units.

DESIGN AND METHODS

A literature review was performed following the steps of a scoping review. Studies published between 1998 and 2017 were identified in several databases: Cinahl, Embase, Medline, PsycINFO and Scopus. The first search returned 7386 unique references. The inclusion criteria consisted of empirical studies or studies related to interactions between health care personnel and patients over 18 years of age on mechanical ventilation. The relevant studies were summarized in a standardized data-charting sheet.

RESULTS

The inclusion criteria were met by 46 articles; 16 were qualitative studies, 17 were quantitative, 6 were mixed-methods studies, and 7 were pilot or feasibility studies. Of the studies, 37 were from nurses, 4 from physicians, 4 from speech language pathologists and 1 from psychologists. The most common topics investigated in the studies were 'experiences with communication on mechanical ventilation' and 'communication exchanges'.

CONCLUSIONS

A variety of communication aids that appear to have some effect on patients should be made available in intensive care units. More multidisciplinary approaches in future studies could enhance the knowledge in the field.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

The education of intensive care unit personnel in the use of such aids should be a prioritized field, as should be the implementation of a variety of communication aids.

Patients' perceptions of their experiences with nurse-patient communication in oncology settings: A focused ethnographic study

Background

The nursing shortage and its impact on patient care are well-documented global issues. Patients living with cancer as a chronic illness have many psychosocial problems and often lack adequate support as a result of ineffective nurse-patient communication. A review of the literature on factors influencing the delivery of psychosocial care to cancer patients indicates that the delivery of psychosocial care in routine cancer nursing within a biomedical healthcare system has not been widely explored.

Objective

To explore patients’ perceptions of their experiences with nurse-patient communication in an oncological clinical environment.

Method

A focused ethnographic study was undertaken in two oncology wards of a hospital in Hong Kong. Data were collected through observations of the ward environment, the activities and instances of nurse-patient communication, semi-structured interviews with patients, and a review of nursing documents.

Results

Two main themes were identified: 1. Nurses’ workload and the environment and 2. Nurse-patient partnership and role expectations. Within these two themes were related subthemes on: Sympathy for the busy nurses; Prioritizing calls to the nurses; Partnership through relationship; Nurses’ role in psychosocial care; and Reduction of psychosocial concerns through physical care.

Conclusions

Many cancer patients do not expect to receive psychosocial care in the form of emotional talks or counseling from busy nurses, but appreciate the attention paid by nurses to their physiological and physical needs. Nurse-patient partnerships in cancer care may reduce the potential workload of nurses. The psychosocial needs of cancer patients could be optimized by providing good physical care through effective communication within a time-constrained oncology setting.