Nurse-Patient Communication Barriers as Perceived by Adult in-Patients and Nurses in a Private Hospital in Malaysia

Abstract

Background: Effective and skilful communication is crucial and an important element in the quality of nursing care. This enables nurses to assess patients' needs and provide them with the appropriate physical care, emotional support, knowledge transfer and exchange of information. However, nurses find it difficult to communicate effectively and therapeutically with their patients. Aim: To identify the nurses’ and adult inpatients’ perceptions of barriers to effective nurse-patient communication. Methodology: A descriptive study was used to collect data from nurses (n=40) and adult inpatient (n=63) in multidisciplinary wards in a private hospital in Malaysia. Two sets of self-administered questionnaire for the two different groups of participants, the patients and nurses were used. Data were analysed using the SPSS version 20.0. Results: Nurses and adult in patient perceived heavy workload, dialect and negative attitudes towards nurses as main barriers that hinders effective communication among nurses and patients. Conclusion: Communication places an important part in patients’ satisfaction of care and the ability of the nurse to provided patient centred care. Nurses should take in to account those communication barriers that affect the patients and be confident enough to take the first step to initiate communication and be able to handle patients’ dynamic emotions.

Safety Workaround of Registered Nurses in Malaysian Public Hospitals: A Pilot Study

“…Communication Barrier. Self-administered questionnaires by (Maniam et al, 2018), Eleven items lined the most factors associated with nurse-patient communication that square measure the nurse connected factors that hinder communication. items are measured on a five-point Likert scale, going from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) for the associate in nursing example "Nurses must limit contact to a minimum so that they may devote their time to other tasks".…”