COMPARISON OF COMMUNICATION BARRIERS FROM NURSES’ AND ELDERLY PATIENTS’ POINT OF VIEW AT URMIA EDUCATIONAL HOSPITALS

Effective communication with elderly patient is essential in nursing process that
is important in satisfying the patient, achieving satisfactory therapeutic outcomes, and motivating the
patients comply with the recommended regimen. The aim of this study was to determine and compare
the viewpoints of nurses and elderly patients regarding communication barriers in Urmia Imam
Khomeini Hospital.
Materials & Methods: The Sample of this descriptive cross-sectional study was consisted of 100 nurses
and 100 elderly patients admitted to the internal and surgical wards of Imam Khomeini Hospital in
Urmia from April to July 2017. The data gathering tool was a three-part questionnaire that evaluated
communication barriers in three domains of nurse related barriers, elderly patient related barriers and
environmental related barriers. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics and
independent sample t-test.
Results: The average age of nurses and the elderly were 28.36 ± 4.63 and 68.12 ± 2.23 years,
respectively. The most important nurse related barriers were nurse’s fatigue and inattention of nurse
from the view point of nurses and elderly, respectively. The most important elderly related barrier were
impatience of patient and not trusting the nurse from the view point of nurses and elderly, respectively.
Finally the most important environment related barrier from nurses and patients points of views was
heavy workload. There was a significant differences between ten nurse related barriers, five elderly
patient related barriers and three environment related barriers. The comparison of the average of
communication barriers was significant from the viewpoints of nurses and patients, and nurses had given
higher points than patients.
Conclusion: According to the results of this study, most of the identified barriers related to nursing and
elderly patients which prevented effective communication were due to the weakness of communication
skills of nurses and the lack of knowledge of physiological problems of the elderly, which can be solved
by conducting training courses. Environment and working conditions barriers should be considered by
the hospital authorities and appropriate measures should be taken to solve them