Using an Educational Intervention to Address Nurse-Patient Communication at the Bedside: A Qualitative Study

It has been shown that simply instituting bedside report does not necessarily improve nurse-patient communication. Nurses need to be educated on standardized methods of giving report. Having a common predictable structure such as SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation) for giving bedside report influences the patient’s perception of communication with the nurse. The researched question was “In nurses working on a medical surgical unit in an acute care hospital does the implementation of an information and role-play workshop using SBAR affect perception of nurse-patient communication in bedside report.” The purpose of the project was to determine nurses’ perceptions of nurse-patient communication following a workshop using SBAR with the intention of improving nurse-patient communication. The goal of the research was to support the use of the workshop as a sustainable approach to informing nursing staff of appropriate nurse-patient communication. The outcomes revealed four categories which included Effective Communication, Being a Patient in the Role Play, Being a Nurse in Role Play, and Future Needs. Within each of the categories themes surfaced from the participants’ experiences in the role play.