What is it about?
This paper reports on a study whose purpose was to develop a methodology for identifying and characterizing communication events between physicians and nurses to better understand communication patterns on general medical-surgical units.
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Why is it important?
Despite the importance of communication to patient safety in hospital settings, we know surprisingly little about communication patterns between physicians and nurses, particularly on general medical-surgical units. Poor communication is the leading cause of preventable adverse events in hospitals as well as a major root cause of sentinel events. The literature provides little guidance on what qualitative methods are best for capturing different types of communication events and patterns.
Perspectives
We used a sequential qualitative mixed method design beginning with general observation, progressing to shadowing and focus groups of physicians and nurses who worked on two medical-surgical units at one academically-affiliated United States Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Hospital. Each data collection method (observation, shadowing, and focus groups) had its own advantages and disadvantages for capturing communication events and patterns. Through observation we were able to see the “what”: communication activities. Shadowing was most useful for understanding “how” physicians and nurses communicated. Focus groups helped answer “why” certain patterns emerged and allowed us to further explore communication events within a group setting. By using all three methods we were able to more thoroughly characterize communication events than by using a single method alone, providing a more holistic picture of how communication occurs on an inpatient medical-surgical unit.
Dr Milisa Manojlovich
University of Michigan
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Use of Multiple Qualitative Methods to Characterize Communication Events Between Physicians and Nurses, Health Communication, January 2014, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2013.835894.
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