Nurse-elderly patients relationship experiences in hospital wards- a qualitative study

ABSTRACT

There is an increasing aging population in Iran. Most of nurses will be involved in caring for older people in the future. Over the past years, much has been written about the benefit of effective nurse patient relationship. The purpose of this study was to ascertain how nurses and older patient communicate together. Using phenomenological approach, the researcher drew participants from alzahra hospital in Isfahan. A purposive sample of 8 nurses and 4 geriatric patients were interviewed in-depth. Colaizzi, analysis method guided the essential activities of the researchers. The reliability and validity of the present study were grounded on the four items [factual value, applicability, consistency and neutrality] suggested by Guba and Lincoln. Three major themes were identified. These were 1] task-oriented communication, 2] incomplete communication, 3] appropriate communication. Despite emphases on nurse-elderly patient communication as a basic element of nursing care for older patients, findings show that this condition continues to be poor. We can improve the relationship between nurses and elder patients through communication skills training and also increasing awareness of the nurses about aging phenomena