Meeting the Complex Needs of the Health Care Team: Identification of Nurse—Team Communication Practices Perceived to Enhance Patient Outcomes

Abstract

Nurses occupy a central position in today's increasingly collaborative health care teams that place a premium on quality patient care. In this study we examined critical team processes and identified specific nurse-team communication practices that were perceived by team members to enhance patient outcomes. Fifty patient-care team members were interviewed to uncover forms of nurse communication perceived to improve team performance. Using a grounded theory approach and constant comparative analysis, study findings reveal two critical processes nurses contribute to as the most central and consistent members of the health care team: ensuring quality decisions and promoting a synergistic team. Moreover, the findings reveal 15 specific nurse-team communication practices that comprise these processes, and thereby are theorized to improve patient outcomes.

Teamwork in nursing: restricted to nursing professionals or an interprofessional collaboration?

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A qualitative study on the role of patient–nurse communication in acute cardiac care

“…daily patient-nurse communication, both formal and informal [4,5]. Despite considerable efforts to ensure that the patient's information needs are met before hospital discharge, several studies claim that this goal is not reached [2,3,6,7].…”

Pleasure at Work in a Family Health Support Team: A Dejourian Analysis

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