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Communication Barriers Between Nurses and Patients: Title
Communication Barriers Between Nurses and Patients: Title
Communication Barriers Between Nurses and Patients: Title
Author’s Note:
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Abstract
Nurses are the key ingredient in a health care facility to deliver top notch treatment to
the patients. So, it is important for them to communicate clearly with the patients.
Effective communication between nurse and patient is crucial for a proper health care
facility. But the because the world is a mixture of cultures and languages, effective
communication is not that easy to implement. This review tries to understand the
communication barrier between nurses and patients in Saudi Arabia and how those
Introduction
The task of communication seems quite easy. But to share one’s views and ideas and
make the other person understand is a tiresome work. But in health care where effective
communication is responsible for peoples lives, there is little room for error. The sharing
of information has to be seamless. The sender, medium and recipient all have to be in a
synch.
This task would have been easy if the nurses in those health care facilities were natives
but Saudi Arabia has a growing number of nurses who are expatriates. This puts them
unsolvable problem. But to understand and solve it better we have dive deep into the
Proper care is not only about surgery and diagnoses. The health care process has
many steps and without proper communication it is really hard to accomplish. The
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patient’s information has to be shared in a concise and effective manner. The only
organizations who can ensure their patients health are the ones who have great
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been progressing in medical communication in recent
years. But there is a problem. There is a cultural stigma attached to it. Women does not
have an active role in workplaces because Saudi Arabia’s traditional values. The
expatriate nurses who come to work in the health care facility face these problems.
They are unable to perform proper nursing duties because of religious cultural barriers.
Not only the patients but also the family or caregiver of the patient are prey to these
they deal directly with patients. Their inability to speak the native language hinder the
Every facility wants to ensure the best care for their patients. It is not only ethical but
also makes business sense to do so. Any kind of miscommunication can even result in
death. If an issue arises because of a misunderstanding among the nurse and patients
A professional nurse understands the pulse of the patient and his or her families. Many
of the times the nurse has to keep calm to manage the patient and his or her families.
They have to understand the families concern and let them share their opinions. A
professional nurse hears every concern but adheres to process adopted by the
attending physician. So, it is very important that there is no barrier between the patient
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Evaluation of the barriers between nurses and patients
The patient’s ability to communicate effectively depends upon many things. It depends
on things like the patients experience with disease, his physical condition, the
medication he is on. So, the nurses have to be very skilled to pick up even the tiniest
details about the patients. If the patient and nurse does not share the same cultural
background and do not speak each other’s language than that can lead to
It would have been ideal if the nurses share the same cultural background as the
patients. But in Saudi Arabia as the profession of nursing is frowned upon, there is a
shortage of nurses in the health care facilities. That is why there is an increasing rate of
creating an unnecessary raft between the patients and the nurses. Patients can not put
their trust on someone who does not understand their culture and nurses can not fully
Health care facilities around the world has a fixed goal in mind. They try to better
people’s life expectancy. In Saudi Arabia it is also the same. Each health care facilities
have varying degree of success depending on how well they manage their staff. But it is
such an complex and intricate system that it is almost impossible to determine how one
problem like the communication barrier between the nurses and patients effects the
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Health care facilities has extremely complex and multi-dimensional goals. There is also
an economic nature to their goals. They want to make the patients feel at home.
Because the patients are their consumers. If the consumer is not happy with service,
they provide the consumer might just get up and leave. Health care facilities are
businesses as well and to them the patient’s safety and comfort takes top priority.
Patients who feel at home at the facility and connect with their nurses are able to share
the true extent of their symptoms. They dialogue between a patient and a nurse is very
important. It is the professional duty of a nurse to take out the time and cater to the
concerns of the patient. Then they can solve any issue regarding their care. When their
a lack of communication the patient or their caregiver can misunderstand the direction
and the situation can become bad really quickly. It is the professional duty of a nurse to
stop that from happening. 80% of serious medical errors happen because of Poor
communication during patient transfers. Desired clinical outcomes are also not possible
if the communication is handled properly. So, the expatriate nurses who are working at
the facility, though of no fault of their own, are actually slowing down the treatment
process.
In the last five years 1,744 patient died because of poor communication in America.
There is a 1.7-billion-dollar cost for malpractice also around the same period. The costs
for miscommunication in health sector are almost the same in Saudi Arabia too. So,
effective communication would benefit both the patients and the health care facility
equally.
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The first thing to reduce miscommunication problems is to raise awareness among the
nurses and improve their communication skills. This can be done by subjecting them to
workshops and courses. They should learn to pick up body languages and facial
expressions to understand how the patient is feeling. The deliver of their care will
improve very much if they are able Communicate better (Klein, 2005).
There should be language courses for the expatriate nurses so they can convey basic
massages to the patients. There should also be awareness regarding certain cultural
aspects so the nurses can blend into the patients’ families to help them understand the
Conclusion
Even after a lot of training an expatriate nurse will not be as effective as a native nurse.
But because there is a shortage of native nurses, health care facilities have to rely on
expatriate nurses. If a proper policy is adopted the difference between them can be cut
short. The patients and the health care facility will both benefit from this.
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Reference
Perera, J., (2015). Effective Communication Skills for Medical Practice. Journal of the
Alosaimi, D., Ahmad, M., (2016). The Challenges of Cultural Competency Among
Expatriate Nurses Working in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Research and theory for
Alsadaan, N., Jones, L., Kimpton, A., DaCosta, C., (2021). Challenges Facing the
395-403. 10.3390/nursrep11020038.
Klein, E., (2005). Effective communication with patients. The Pennsylvania nurse. 60.
14-5.
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