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Article Review on How to Talk To a Doctor and Effective Communication

An Article Review on How to Talk To a Doctor in Relation to Effective and Ineffective NursePhysician Communication in Hospitals
Article 1: Perceptions of Effective and Ineffective Nurse-Physician Communication in Hospitals:
Author Names: Robinson, F.P., Gorman, G., Slimmer, L.W., & Yudkowsky, R. (2010).
Article 2: How to Talk To Doctors A Guide for Effective Communication:
Author Names (2): Curtis, K. & Tzannes, A. (2011).
Student Name: Kenneth Sibayan
Student Number: 822855482
Date Of Submission: Friday February 28, 2014
Submitted To: Prof. Tamiza

Article Review on How to Talk To a Doctor and Effective Communication

Kenneth Sibayan
Prof. Tamiza
NURS 260
Friday February 28, 2014
Introduction:
Nurses are one of the most relied on health care professionals alongside with doctors. In terms of
doing their job efficiently, it is believed that communication is to be done efficiently and
accurate. What this means is terminology or abbreviations must be used efficiently in order to
bring about the right meaning. A Nurse that uses the wrong terminology or abbreviations can
cause medication errors to a patient which will most likely put the patient in danger. Lifethreatening or not, nurses want to prevent doing more damage. It is imperative that nurses must
encourage printed or computerized orders to prevent any confusion in reading the order.
Furthermore, the use of resources such as printed text for the deaf or translators can help solve
language issues with patients. When communicating with patients, it is important to make sure
the client understands what needs to be done and to make sure the nurse understands what the
client is communicating. In other words, communication is a form of protection to help protect
the patients from medication errors, adverse reactions, or dangerous situations.
Discussion:
Nurses and Physicians are expected to deliver efficient and quality treatment to clients in their
care. This can be affected by the health care teams ability to efficiently communicate what
needs to be done in order to solve the problem. While working with interprofessional

Article Review on How to Talk To a Doctor and Effective Communication

communication, stress plays a huge factor in making communicating to other members in the
team difficult. This is because of the fact that stress is a feeling that distracts a health care
provider. Ultimately, this causes the health care provider difficulty in the thought process of
thinking what needs to be done and said to others. Stress may also cause confusion which may
lead to medication errors, procedure errors, or communication errors due to the nurse or
physicians thoughts becoming impaired and distracted. In other words, a kid who is stressed
about a test might read a question right, but convey the words wrong due to decreased
concentration from stress. Nurse-Physician communication is important given the fact that it
helps to provide patient safety (Perceptions of effective and ineffective pg. 1), which is
ultimately the main concern of any health care provider. What I learned from this article is that
efficient communication skills between nurses and physicians plays a crucial role in providing
care to a patient. Miscommunication caused by things such as reading errors from legibility,
incorrect verbal statements, and/or procedural errors affects the patients safety. The patient gets
put into a dangerous situation which may cause more work, stress, and extra therapeutic care to
be done. The more things you have to do, the more times you can make a mistake. And the more
things that need to be done consumes more valuable time. I agree with the authors key points in
terms of patient safety in relation to Nurse-Physician Communication because client safety is the
highest concern when providing care. I disagree with some things they consider effective and
ineffective interprofessional communication. For example, page 4 in article 1 shows effective
and ineffective measures in Table 3. Next to ineffective communication, the statement describes
how dependence of electronic devices is ineffective. This was alarming to me because of the fact
that computerized orders is much more efficient/effective. The computer can hold electronic

Article Review on How to Talk To a Doctor and Effective Communication

logs, can store a lot of data, well-organized, and easily accessible through the search feature for
future reference. The computer can also print out orders for legible text available to those that
have trouble reading a physicians hand-writing. To me, this is adaptive in terms of the Roy
Adaptation Model because the focus here is to promote patient safety through effective
communication. Knowledge in this article that I think can improve nursing practice is
maintenance of mutual respect. Some health care providers may have an ego which can cause
disrespect when they make incorrect statements. This can lead to internal conflict and the trust is
depleted in the team. A team with no trust cant be a team which can lead to further issues,
mainly refusing to communicate with the other health care provider. Maintaining mutual respect
allows confidence and reassurance from one HCP to the next allowing efficient communication
to be used without stress reducing efficiency. The article reflected my role as a student nurse to
always have respect in a stressful environment, in order to maximize communication efficiency
and limit more stressful content coming in. In article 2 How to talk to a doctor relates to
Nurse-Physician communication from article one due to the fact that communication verbal and
non-verbal still influence patient safety. The main thing that I found interesting was that
guidelines for verbal communication used in times of uncertainty and urgency (How to talk to
a doctor pg. 1) are actually less regulated. And the hierarchy (How to talk to doctors pg. 2) &
(Perceptions of Effective and Ineffective pg. 2) of the health care team can also affect
communication of lower class members in the team. Both articles highlight this major factor that
influences communication in the facility. Lower classed members in the team may feel inclined
to just accept the order given by the physician. This can be a barrier to effective communication
and affect patient safety. I agree with the authors point of view that poor communication when

Article Review on How to Talk To a Doctor and Effective Communication

talking to a Doctor can lead to adverse outcomes, which can affect patient safety and can
drastically hurt the patients health. Problems that may influence this are the complexity of the
patient. High complexity may lead to stress in health care providers. This is especially true in a
health care facility that is chaotic. The article helped me to understand that being calm helps ease
stress known as a communication barrier.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, nurses and physicians must communicate effectively by limited medication errors
through electronic methods (i.e computers/printed text) and reduce verbal orders. During an
operation or medical procedure, keeping calm can help reduce more stress to help facilitate
clarity when speaking. I have learned that respect can help keep efficiency in the functioning of
the health care team. I also have learned that nurses shouldnt be afraid to speak their opinion
despite a hierarchy within the health care facility. Effective communication can help lead to
therapeutic outcomes and protect patient safety being the major concerns of any health care
provider.

Article Review on How to Talk To a Doctor and Effective Communication

NURS 260 References
Curtis, K. & Tzannes, A. (2011). How to talk to doctors a guide for effective communication.
International Nursing Review, 58(1), 13-20.
Robinson, F.P., Gorman, G., Slimmer, L.W., & Yudkowsky, R. (2010). Perceptions of Effective
and Ineffective nursing-physician communication in Hospitals. Nursing Forum, 45(3), 206-216.