Experiences of Nurses on Perceived Therapeutic Communication Barriers in Ethiopia, A Qualitative Study

Abstract Background: Communication is the exchanging of the message by using verbal and non-verbal ways. It is an essential skill, particularly for nurses. Communication barriers are hinders that affect the giving and receiving of information between nurses and patients.Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of nurses on perceived communication barriers.Methods: An exploratory study design was employed using a qualitative approach. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 15 nurses who were interviewed both in focused group discussion and in-depth interview using an unstructured interview guide. Interviews were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Perceived communication barriers were explored and the analysis was made using deductive approach thematic analysis. Perceived communication barriers were categorized into five themes includes; socio-demographic related communication, common related communication, nurse related communication, patient-related communication, and environment-related communication barriers.Conclusion: Nurses, patients, and the environments are the main perceived communication barriers as indicated in both in-depth interviews and focused group discussion. Lack of medical facilities or access is the main barrier of the nurse to patient communication, which needs great attention of the stakeholders. To enhance communication with the patients; nurses and other stakeholders like the ministry of health, health bureaus, and hospital authorities need to recognize the communication barriers. Giving awareness on the communication barriers for the nurses helps to minimize the barriers and improve the nurses to patients' communication.