Relationship between the communication skill of nurse - patient with patient safety in the critical care units

Abstract

Background and aim: Focus on patient safety in intensive care units is a major issue, and one of the most important factors related to patient safety is communication skills of the nurse – patient. This study aimed to determine the relationship between the communication skill of nurse - patient with patient safety in the critical care units of Urmia based on nurses point of view. Methods: In correlational descriptive study, 167 nurses working in intensive care unit educational and non-educational hospitals of Urmia, participated with census sampling method. Data were gathered using valid and reliable questionnaires including communication skills of the nurse-patient and patient safety and was evaluated communication skills of the nurse-patient and patient safety. Results: The majority nurses working in educational and non-educational hospitals, respectively (97.5, 97.8) evaluated their communication skills in good level. The majority nurses working in educational and non-educational hospitals, respectively (87.6, 84.8) evaluated patient safety in good level. The study results showed that there is statistically a significant relationship between communication skills of the nurse-patient and patient safety (P>0.001). Conclusion: Regarding to the result of this study, nurses can use suitable communication skills with patients that hospitalized in intensive care unit to maintain and promote patient safety.

Keywords

• communication skills
• intensive care unit
• communication nurse-patient
• patient safety