Patients' Perceptions About the Quality of Nurses' Communication During Acute Hospitalisation: A Cross-Sectional Survey.
Kasie Harrison, Linda Sweet, Kaara Ray B Calma and 5 others
PMID 40459039WHAT IT FOUND
Patients rated nurses' communication highly for respect and care.
Shared decision-making items were rated excellent less often, including care planning and encouraging questions.
Key findings
01The highest excellent ratings were for overall care by the nurse (73.8%), treating the patient with respect (72.1%), and showing care and concern (70.6%).
02The lowest excellent ratings were for shared decision-making items, including encouraging questions (52%), informing about the plan of care (54%), involving patients in decisions (54.0%), showing interest in ideas about health (54.4%), communicating with the healthcare team (54.8%), and helping in a timely manner (57.5%).
03Patients who rated nurses excellent for involving them in decisions had a shorter median stay (4.0 days) than those who did not (5.0 days), and longer stay was associated with lower excellent ratings for overall care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Low response rate and possible response bias. Convenience sample from two rural and regional hospitals, mostly surgical wards, English speakers, and older patients, so it may not apply to metropolitan, critical care, emergency, or other language groups. CAT-N was not formally validated, and responses showed a strong ceiling effect. Patients were asked about the previous shift, and illness may have affected recall. Open-ended comments were not analysed because they focused on nursing care rather than communication specifically.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the lower shared decision-making scores as proof that nurses communicate poorly or that training will fix it. This was a patient perception survey using an unvalidated tool, with a high ceiling effect and a convenience sample, and it did not test any intervention.