Barriers to communication between nurses and patients as perceived by nurses

The purpose of the present investigation was to determine the kinds of communication barriers most frequently mentioned by a sample of nurses and if nurses with varied backgrounds of preparation identified the same barriers. A questionnaire compiled of 37 items considered barriers to communication with patients was given to 61 registered nurses. These nurses were employed in two different hospitals, one being privately owed and the other a governmental institution. The participants represented four kinds of professional nursing preparation: the associate degree, diploma program, baccalaureate, and post baccalaureate education. Each nurse was asked to check each item according to the percentage of time she believed the item was a barrier to her communicating with patients. The participants were placed into eight groups according to educational preparation, where employed, and their perception of the author as a nurse or non-nurse. Mean total communication barrier scores were computed for each group. T tests were used to determine if there were significant differences in total communication barrier scores between the two hospitals, the four educational levels, and those nurses who perceived the author as a nurse and those who perceived the author as a non-nurse. The t ratio was not statistically significant at the .05 level for any of these comparisons. Therefore there were no reliable differences in mean communication barrier scores. A correlation of .08 between the length of employment and total communication barrier score indicated no relationship between length of employment and degree of communication difficulty. An item analysis was made to determine which barriers to communication were the most important to the total group and to the individual sub groups. The four items ranked as the most important barriers by mean score for the total group were (a) the patient was very demanding, (b) my work load kept me to busy, (c) talking with patients kept me away from my other duties, and (d) the patient seemed indifferent. There were no major differences in the items selected by any of the different groups. Each group selected essentially the same items, but not always in the same order of importance.