Title

Communication Barriers Between

Nurses and Patients

Name of the Student:

Name of the University:

Author’s Note:

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Abstract

Nurses are the key ingredient in a health care facility to deliver top notch treatment to

the patients. So, it is important for them to communicate clearly with the patients.

Effective communication between nurse and patient is crucial for a proper health care

facility. But the because the world is a mixture of cultures and languages, effective

communication is not that easy to implement. This review tries to understand the

communication barrier between nurses and patients in Saudi Arabia and how those

barriers can be removed.

Introduction

The task of communication seems quite easy. But to share one’s views and ideas and

make the other person understand is a tiresome work. But in health care where effective

communication is responsible for peoples lives, there is little room for error. The sharing

of information has to be seamless. The sender, medium and recipient all have to be in a

synch.

This task would have been easy if the nurses in those health care facilities were natives

but Saudi Arabia has a growing number of nurses who are expatriates. This puts them

on a disadvantage while communicating with the native patients. This is not an

unsolvable problem. But to understand and solve it better we have dive deep into the

effects of communication barriers in a health care facility.

The importance of communication and professionalism

Proper care is not only about surgery and diagnoses. The health care process has

many steps and without proper communication it is really hard to accomplish. The

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patient’s information has to be shared in a concise and effective manner. The only

organizations who can ensure their patients health are the ones who have great

communication policies. That is why communication in medical communities is receiving

much attention over the past few decades (Perera, 2015).

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been progressing in medical communication in recent

years. But there is a problem. There is a cultural stigma attached to it. Women does not

have an active role in workplaces because Saudi Arabia’s traditional values. The

expatriate nurses who come to work in the health care facility face these problems.

They are unable to perform proper nursing duties because of religious cultural barriers.

Not only the patients but also the family or caregiver of the patient are prey to these

misunderstandings. Most of the nurses acknowledge the importance of language when

they deal directly with patients. Their inability to speak the native language hinder the

ability to assure proper care (Alosaimi and Ahmad, 2016).

Every facility wants to ensure the best care for their patients. It is not only ethical but

also makes business sense to do so. Any kind of miscommunication can even result in

death. If an issue arises because of a misunderstanding among the nurse and patients

it undermines the professionalism of the health care facility.

A professional nurse understands the pulse of the patient and his or her families. Many

of the times the nurse has to keep calm to manage the patient and his or her families.

They have to understand the families concern and let them share their opinions. A

professional nurse hears every concern but adheres to process adopted by the

attending physician. So, it is very important that there is no barrier between the patient

and the nurse.

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Evaluation of the barriers between nurses and patients

The patient’s ability to communicate effectively depends upon many things. It depends

on things like the patients experience with disease, his physical condition, the

medication he is on. So, the nurses have to be very skilled to pick up even the tiniest

details about the patients. If the patient and nurse does not share the same cultural

background and do not speak each other’s language than that can lead to

misinterpretation or reinterpretation of important instructions.

It would have been ideal if the nurses share the same cultural background as the

patients. But in Saudi Arabia as the profession of nursing is frowned upon, there is a

shortage of nurses in the health care facilities. That is why there is an increasing rate of

expatriate recruitment in the nursing profession is going on (Alsadaan, 2021). Which is

creating an unnecessary raft between the patients and the nurses. Patients can not put

their trust on someone who does not understand their culture and nurses can not fully

exercise authority on someone without communicating properly.

How these barriers impact the ability to meet facility’s goals

Health care facilities around the world has a fixed goal in mind. They try to better

people’s life expectancy. In Saudi Arabia it is also the same. Each health care facilities

have varying degree of success depending on how well they manage their staff. But it is

such an complex and intricate system that it is almost impossible to determine how one

problem like the communication barrier between the nurses and patients effects the

whole system. But It is sure that it hinders the treatment process.

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Health care facilities has extremely complex and multi-dimensional goals. There is also

an economic nature to their goals. They want to make the patients feel at home.

Because the patients are their consumers. If the consumer is not happy with service,

they provide the consumer might just get up and leave. Health care facilities are

businesses as well and to them the patient’s safety and comfort takes top priority.

Patients who feel at home at the facility and connect with their nurses are able to share

the true extent of their symptoms. They dialogue between a patient and a nurse is very

important. It is the professional duty of a nurse to take out the time and cater to the

concerns of the patient. Then they can solve any issue regarding their care. When their

a lack of communication the patient or their caregiver can misunderstand the direction

and the situation can become bad really quickly. It is the professional duty of a nurse to

stop that from happening. 80% of serious medical errors happen because of Poor

communication during patient transfers. Desired clinical outcomes are also not possible

if the communication is handled properly. So, the expatriate nurses who are working at

the facility, though of no fault of their own, are actually slowing down the treatment

process.

Recommendations to remove these barriers

In the last five years 1,744 patient died because of poor communication in America.

There is a 1.7-billion-dollar cost for malpractice also around the same period. The costs

for miscommunication in health sector are almost the same in Saudi Arabia too. So,

effective communication would benefit both the patients and the health care facility

equally.

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The first thing to reduce miscommunication problems is to raise awareness among the

expatriate nurses. It is impossible to control the patients, so it is wise focus on the

nurses and improve their communication skills. This can be done by subjecting them to

workshops and courses. They should learn to pick up body languages and facial

expressions to understand how the patient is feeling. The deliver of their care will

improve very much if they are able Communicate better (Klein, 2005).

There should be language courses for the expatriate nurses so they can convey basic

massages to the patients. There should also be awareness regarding certain cultural

aspects so the nurses can blend into the patients’ families to help them understand the

treatment process better.

Conclusion

Even after a lot of training an expatriate nurse will not be as effective as a native nurse.

But because there is a shortage of native nurses, health care facilities have to rely on

expatriate nurses. If a proper policy is adopted the difference between them can be cut

short. The patients and the health care facility will both benefit from this.

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 Reference

Perera, J., (2015). Effective Communication Skills for Medical Practice. Journal of the

Postgraduate Institute of Medicine. 2. 20. 10.4038/jpgim.8082.

Alosaimi, D., Ahmad, M., (2016). The Challenges of Cultural Competency Among

Expatriate Nurses Working in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Research and theory for

nursing practice. 30. 10.1891/1541-6577.30.4.302.

Alsadaan, N., Jones, L., Kimpton, A., DaCosta, C., (2021). Challenges Facing the

Nursing Profession in Saudi Arabia: An Integrative Review. Nursing Reports. 11.

395-403. 10.3390/nursrep11020038.

Klein, E., (2005). Effective communication with patients. The Pennsylvania nurse. 60.

14-5.

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