The role of communications in nursing care for elderly people: a review of the literature

Abstract

Communication in nursing care is an important topic assessing the specific needs of elderly patients and providing nursing care that is tailored to the individual patient's needs. In this review of the literature, we describe the role attributed to communication in theoretical nursing models and we report how research in communication in nursing elderly patients has taken place over the last ten years. It appears that since the eighties there has been an increase in observation studies into nurse-patient communication. There still is, however, a lack of observation instruments to do justice to the interactive nature of nurse-patient communication. Special attention should be paid to reliability and validity.

Non‐verbal behaviour in nurse–elderly patient communication

“…These ®ndings were not attributable to the differences between patient populations in the two care settings, such as age, gender, perceived health or length of time the nurse has cared for the patient. An earlier study (Caris-Verhallen et al 1997b) showed that those patient characteristics were hardly related to the way nurses communicate with their patients. The more frequent occurrence of non-verbal behaviour may re¯ect the familiar atmosphere in the home for the elderly.…”

“…These types of study are not possible in nursing practice, but restricted to experimental arrangements. In analysing verbal behaviour and the atmosphere during the encounter, nurses rarely showed hostility or disagreement with their patients (Caris-Verhallen et al 1997b). Therefore patient-directed gaze, smiling, head nodding, forward leaning and affective touch were considered as positive.…”

“…Although, in the community, nurse±patient relationships can be also very intimate and reciprocal, the major objective of a home visit in the community is to deliver nursing care. Earlier research into verbal behaviour in these settings (Caris-Verhallen et al 1997b) showed that the interactions in home nursing are less familiar than in institutional care. This could be connected with a low level of non-verbal behaviour.…”

“…RIAS discerns socio-emotional and instrumental communication. Within these two categories we de®ned in an earlier study ®ve clusters, based on Correspondence Analysis (Caris-Verhallen et al 1997b…”

Effects of snoezelen, integrated in 24h dementia care, on nurse–patient communication during morning care

“…Thereby, the use of nonverbal communication, in addition to verbal communication, is essential with people who have limited verbal comprehension [7]. Nonverbal behaviour is an eminent mode of expressing empathy and support and an important tool to make contact with residents [8][9][10].…”