Barriers to Effective Communication with Elderly Patient from the Nurses' Viewpoints at Gilan University of Medical Sciences Hospitals in 2018

Effective Nurse Communication with Elderly Patient is an important factor for satisfaction, optimal treatment outcomes. Barriers to communication can delay the improvement. Understanding these barriers and proper planning to address these barriers can improve the nurse-patient relationship and quality of nursing services. The purpose of this study was to determine the barriers to effective communication with the elderly patient from the nurses' point of view at Gilan University of Medical Sciences Hospitals in 2018.

This cross-sectional study was carried out in 2018 in medical educational centers of Gilan province. 250 nurses who met the inclusion criteria were selected by random sampling. Data collection tool was a 30-question questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using spssv.19 software using inferential statistics including Kolmogorov–Smirnov test to determine normal distribution of data, and nonparametric the Mann–Whitney U test, Spearman correlation was used for significance distribution of samples with significance level p <0.05.

The highest barrier for nurse-patient communication was reported in the area of occupational characteristics of nurses with a mean score  93/3±95/38. Environmental factors(38/78±3/88), socioeconomic factors(32/40±4/12), and clinical conditions(15/60±2/60) were the communication barriers that nurses emphasized, respectively.There was also a significant relationship between the mean score of nurse-patient communication barriers of the elderly with age (r=0/007) and clinical conditions with age (r=- 0/003) variables as well as individual-social domains and clinical conditions with sex(p=0/003) and marital status (p=0/041).

According to the results of the present study, nurses were more focused on occupational problems and less important on other factors as barriers to communication with elderly patients. Therefore, barriers to the environment and working conditions of nurses should be addressed as soon as possible by the nursing authorities and necessary steps be taken to eliminate them.