Long-term and short-term patients' barriers to communication

The purpose of the present study was to determine: (1) if long term patients would express more barriers to communications with registered nurses than short-term patients, and (2) if the type and relative frequency of communications barriers between long-term patients and short-term patients was different. The reason for these questions was that it appeared from previous observations that patients' attitudes changed as the length of hospital stay increased. The patient is the most important person in the hospital setting, so his perception of the quality of nursing care he received and his total well-being are important criteria by which to judge the effectiveness of nursing care, and in turn may serve to point out strengths and weaknesses in the educational program of the nurse.