Communication problems facing nursing staff during their interaction with hospitalized mentally ill patients.

Abd Elaziz, Walaa Saber; Shalaby, Mervat Hosney; Elsherif, Zebeda Abd El Gawad

doi:10.21608/tsnj.2015.74488

Communication problems facing nursing staff during their interaction with hospitalized mentally ill patients.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Bachelor of Nursing Faculty of Nursing, Tanta University

² Assistant professor of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Tanta University

³ lecturer of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Tanta University

10.21608/tsnj.2015.74488

Abstract

Good communication between nurses and patients is essential for the successful outcome of individualized nursing care of each patient. Psychiatric nurses have been criticized for their lack of interaction and therapeutic engagement with patients. Many variables within the psychiatric setting affect communication. For example, factors related to the individual nurse, environment, patient and organization. This study aimed to assess communication problems that face nursing staff during their interaction with hospitalized mentally ill patients in psychiatric hospitals. The study was conducted in Tanta Mental Health Hospital which is affiliated to Ministry of Health & population. The study subjects include all nurses working in Tanta Mental Health Hospital (80) of both sexes. Two tools were used by the researcher to collect the necessary data. Tool (1) Factors that hinder effective communication between nurses & patients, structured questionnaire, and Tool (2) Nurses communication skills observational sheet. The main results revealed that all nursing staff are facing problems during their interaction with hospitalized mentally ill patients in psychiatric hospital, it was found that 70% of nurses reported that the failure to clarify roles and responsibilities of each member of the team always hinder communication, and also three- quarters of nurses (75.1%) reported that too much papers work and waste of time always hinder communication, It was obvious that more than half of the sample 63.3% reported that patients who are slow in response always hinder communication, 67.6% reported that the aggressive behaviors of patients always hinder communication, It was concluded that all nursing staff face problems during their interaction with hospitalized mentally ill patients in psychiatric hospitals but with varying degrees. Also, all nursing staff experience difficulties in communication skills but with varying degrees, so it was recommended that nurse communicators need support in order to be effective. Training programs are needed for hospital staff about effective communication to improve their interaction with patients.

Keywords