An Exploratory Study to Assess the Communication Pattern, Skills, Style and Problems of Communication among the Professional Nurses

Abstract

Background: Effective communication is the key element in providing comprehensive high-quality nursing care to the patients. Aim: Aim of the study was to explore the pattern, skills, and style of communication among the professional nurses and the problems faced by the nurses during communication. Methodology: A quantitative research approach with exploratory descriptive design was used in this study. This study was done at selected hospitals of Saudi Arabia. Professional nurses were the population of the study. Proportionate stratified random sampling technique was used in this study. The investigators randomly selected the subjects proportionately from different hospitals of Arar Province. Nurses from selected hospitals of Arar Province were the sample of this study with the sample size of 100. Before starting the data collection process written permission was taken from the ethical committee and administrators of the hospitals. Informed written consent was taken from all the participants of the study. Through the structured questionnaire, the researchers collected the data from the subjects regarding socio-personal variables of professional nurse, pattern of communication, skills of the professional nurses needed for the communication, style of communication and the problems faced by the professional nurses during communication. The data were obtained from the sample through observation and interview. Throughout the study, the researchers maintained the confidentiality and anonymity of the subjects. Results: Analysis of the study depicts that 38 percent of the subjects were belongs to the age group of 20-30 years, but 16 percent of the samples were between the age group of 51-60 years. Majority (78 percent) of the samples were females whereas 22 percent of the subjects were males. About 46 percent of the subjects were Saudis, but 30 percent of the subjects were Indian nurses. Majority (79 percent) of the samples were B.Sc. nurses and 88 percent of the samples were staff nurses / nurse technicians. Majority (84 percent) of them were working under ministry of health hospitals of Saudi. Around 41 percent of the subjects were having the experience of 1-5 years, whereas 8 percent of the staffs were newly joined, they have no experience. Regarding pattern of communication, 39 percent of the Nurses were having very good pattern of communication, whereas 28 percent of the subjects were maintaining excellent pattern of communication with their clients. About 19 percent of the Nurses were having excellent skill in communication. More than fifty (57%) percent of the Nurses were having very good style of communication. About 25 percent of the participants were facing the communication problems of incivility and rude behaviour, whereas 19 percent were suffering from intimidation. Around 22 percent of the participants were the victims of humiliation. About 16 percent were suffering from physical violence but 18 percent nurses were the victims of bullying. There was a significant association between socio-personal variables and pattern, skills, style, and problems of communication among professional nurses, P<0.05*. Hypothesis of the study revealed that there was a significant positive correlation between socio-personal variables and style of communication and problems faced by the professional nurses during communication. Correlation is significant at 0.05* level. Conclusion: This study recommends that effective communication improves productivity and promotes team-building among professional nurses.