Assessing barriers of Nurse-patient's effective communication in educational hospitals of Ahwaz

Establishing an effective communication with patients is an essential aspect of nursing care. However, most of studies described the nurse-patient relationship as weak. Recognition of barriers in nurse-patient’s effective communication from their point of view could facilitate the actions need to be taken for removing such barriers. The study aimed at assessing barriers of nurse-patient’s effective communication from nurses and patients’ viewpoints and to compare them. This descriptive – analytic study was undertaken in 2008, with a sample of 80 nurses and 80 patients drawn from three educational hospitals in Ahvaz city. They were selected by convenience sampling. Data were gathered through a questionnaire with 30 questions for nurses and 15 questions for patients on a 5-points Likert rating scale. It was found that "nursing works overload"(77.5%), "hardship of nursing tasks" (73.75%), " deficiency of welfare facilities for nurses"(67.5%), "physical and emotional fatigue" (66.25%) and "not appreciating nurses" (62.5%) were reported by nurses as the main barriers of effective communication. Patients considered "nurses’ unfamiliarity with local language" (40%), "Nurses’ bad temper" (33.75%), "sex difference with nurses" (32.5%), "Patients’ transmitted diseases" (28.75%) and "lack of therapeutic and welfare facilities for patients" (25%) main barriers of effective communication. The study revealed there are some congruency and discrepancy between nurse’s and patient's viewpoints in ranking barriers. Thus health manager should put their attempts on eliminating or modifying the most important barriers announced by nurses and patients, especially on factors which both groups reported.