Communication barriers encountered by the undergraduate nursing students and the newly admitted patients while interacting with each other in the tertiary care hospital of Bhopal

Abstract

Introduction: Communication is a lifelong learning process. Clear communication means the information is conveyed effectively between people. As a part of training for nursing service, nursing students have to communicate with patients focusing on the patient's needs and problems. Many nursing students face communication difficulties with their facilitators and patients during their clinical learning. This study aims to determine the communication barriers encountered by the undergraduate nursing students and the newly admitted patients in tertiary care hospital of Bhopal and to find out the association of the communication barriers with the selected socio- demographic variables. Methods: A descriptive, cross sectional study was conducted among 138 undergraduate nursing students and 73 newly admitted patients.  The barriers were assessed with the help of a self structured questionnaire and the association was analyzed with frequency, percentage, distribution and fischer’s exact test. Results: Among nursing students, 68.8% reported moderate communication barriers, and 21% faced severe barriers. Among patients, 36% experienced moderate communication barriers and 24.7% of them faced severe communication barriers. This study also concludes that there is significant association between the level of communication barrier with the course and year of study of the undergraduate nursing students and with the highest level of education of the patients. Conclusion: Furthermore, it was also concluded that the most significant barrier among the nursing students and the admitted patients was psychological barrier with those patients who did not neither maintain eye contact nor show interest and with those nursing students who did not maintain a good eye contact nor let them express their ideas, respectively.