barriers of nurse-patient communication from the nurses' point of view in educational hospitals affiliated to kurdistan university of medical sciences

Background & aim: communication with the patient is the basis for nursing practice in providing care for the patient. the aim of this study was to determine the barriers to nurse-patient communication from the viewpoint of nurses working in educational hospitals of kurdistan university of medical sciences. materials and methods: this descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 151 of nursing staff in educational hospitals of kurdistan university of medical sciences selected by convenience sampling method. data gathering tool was a questionnaire including demographic characteristics and “barriers to nurse-patient communication” questionnaire with four-part: common barriers between nurses and patients, nurses’ barriers, patients’ barriers and environmental barriers. the data were analyzed by spss software ver 16. the demographic data and the barriers to nurse-patient communication were measured, using frequency, mean, and standard deviation. results: cultural difference between nurses and patients (2.62±1.06) was the most common barriers to the nurse-patient communication. the most important barriers related to the patient included the patient's companion’s interference (3.24±0.92). among the environmental barriers, caring for a critical patient (3.27±0.98) was the most important barriers. the most important nurses’ barriers were lack of time (3.46±0.78). conclusions: nurses and nursing managers should work to address and remove the barriers identified in relation to the nurse-patient communication. providing care by native and same gender nurses, absence of patients' companion, creating a quiet environment and increasing the number of nursing staff could help to overcome these barriers.