Unveiling the silent conversations: a study on nurse-patient communication in the intensive care unit

Abstract: Most critically ill patients under mechanical ventilation cannot communicate effectively and convey their needs due to the presence of an endotracheal tube, rendering them voiceless for a certain period. Consequently, the lack of effective communication between the patient and nurses, who serve as caregivers in the intensive care unit (ICU), may compromise the patient’s needs, expectations, and satisfaction. Thus, the aims of this study is to explore the nurse-patient communication in the intensive care unit. This generic qualitative study design employed three data collection methods: in-depth semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis. However, only result from observation will be presented in this paper. Data were collected from an ICU in a tertiary hospital in Kuantan, Pahang. A total of 13 cases were selected and content analyses was conducted on the data. The themes that emerged through the observation were: ways to communicate, barriers of communication, frustration, being responsible, and attitude. Most of the time, the nurse and mechanically ventilated patient (MVP) could convey messages to one another through nonverbal communication. However, communication barriers sometimes stood in the way and impacted the communication chain, such as the time consumed to understand the message and misinterpretation. The nurses believed they should strengthen the existing communication strategy or introduce a new concept that has not yet been adopted at their place of employment. The nurses were aware of their responsibilities as healthcare providers, particularly while caring for MVP, but the nature of their profession also had an impact on how well they were able to serve their patients. Therefore, it is recommended that adopting or adapting the existing communication tools online might be the best starter step for the nurse to help communicate effectively with the MVP.