Role of strategic communication in nursing theory and research.

Linking the process of nursing with theory and research in interpersonal competence is important in building a comprehensive theory of nursing. One dimension of interpersonal competence is the ability to use communication as a strategic mode of nursing intervention. The study of strategic communication can proceed by identifying communication-relevant nursing objectives, obstacles that inhibit the accomplishment of these objectives, and interpersonal strategies that can be employed to address these obstacles and facilitate goal attainment. The use of free response data collection procedures and theoretically grounded and hierarchically ordered message coding systems represents a viable method to analyze strategic communication.