Words Matter

Palliative care consultation teams (PCCTs) provide input to other health-care providers working with patients who have life-limiting disease. This study examines whether the diction and phrasing of consultation recommendations in the electronic health record influence their implementation. We reviewed 288 verbatim PCCT recommendations that were made for 111 unique patients in a Veterans Affairs hospital and available in the electronic health record. Recommendations were coded for linguistic features, such as the presence of conditionals (e.g., "could") and tentative phrasing (e.g., "would suggest"). Each patient's subsequent treatment was followed in the medical record to determine whether PCCT recommendations were implemented. Only 57% of the consultation recommendations were eventually implemented. Recommendations that included a conditional word or phrase were significantly less likely to be implemented. In particular, recommendations that included the words "could" and "consider" were less likely to be implemented. PCCTs may enhance their effectiveness by attending to the subtle pragmatics of how they communicate with other health-care providers, particularly in electronic communication where nonverbal features of communication are unavailable.

Exploring Nurse's Communicative Role in Nurse-Patient Relations: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: Recognition the nurses’ communicative roles can influence quality of patient’s care. Therefore, this study was aimed to explore nurse’s role in nurse-patient relations.

Methods: This study was a qualitative research in which collected data was analyzed by content analysis method. The participants were 23 nurses, patients and their families in medical and surgical wards of a referral hospital in Tehran, Iran. Data were collected by semi-structured interview and observation.

Results: Data analysis was led to the emergence of a main conceptual category: The patient's need-based communication. This category was derived from two categories: 1) Identifying the patient’s needs; and 2) Communicative behavior in the face of the patient’s needs. "Identifying the patient’s needs" was related to "type of the patient’s problem", "patients’ inquiring about their health status" and "monitoring the patient’s health status". "Communicative behavior in the face of the patient’s needs" was composed of four subcategories: "caring attention", "informal education of the patient", "inducing calmness to the patient", and "obtaining the trust of the patient".

Conclusion: The nurse’s role in relationship with patients is designed according to patients’ needs. Therefore, if the patients’ needs in clinical settings are defined and clarified appropriately, the nurse-patient relations will be enhanced and thereby the quality of care will be improved.