What are they talking about? Content of the communication exchanges between nurses, patients and relatives in a department of medicine for older people—An ethnographic study

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore and describe the content of the communication exchanges between nurses, patients and their relatives in a department of medicine for older people in western Sweden. BACKGROUND: Information, messages and knowledge are constantly being communicated between nurses, older patients and relatives in the healthcare sector. The quality of communication between them has a major influence on patient outcomes. A prerequisite for good care to be given and received is that there is mutual understanding between the parties involved. DESIGN: An ethnographic study was informed by a sociocultural perspective. METHOD: Data were collected through 40 participatory observations of meetings between nurses and older patients and/or relatives which covered 135 hr of nurse-patient-relative interaction, field notes, 40 field conversations with 24 nurses and 40 field conversations with patients (n = 40) and relatives (n = 26). Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses. An ethnographic analysis was performed. RESULTS: The analysis identified three categories of content of the communication exchanges: medical content focusing on the patient's medical condition, personal content focusing on the patient's life story and explanatory content focusing on the patient's health and nursing needs. The content is influenced by the situation and context. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses would benefit from more awareness and understanding of the importance of the communication content and of the value of asking the didactic questions (how, when, what and why) to improve the patients' and relatives' understanding of the information exchanges and to increase patient safety. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Nurses can use the communication content to create conditions enabling them to obtain a holistic view of the patient's life history and to develop an appropriate person-centred care plan.