Experiences of therapeutic communication between nursing staff and family members in Neonatology

Abstract

Introduction: Therapeutic communication tries to build relationships that promote an attitude that helps health personnel with care and with this create favorable conditions for the patient or family member, involving various elements such as empathy, respect, active listening to reach the patient. Likewise, nursing staff need to develop certain skills to establish adequate therapeutic communication. Objective: To categorize the experiences of therapeutic communication between nursing staff and relatives in neonatology. Method: The research is mixed, cross-sectional. In the qualitative phase, the information was collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 family members, at which time the information was saturated, and in the quantitative phase, the scale on "communication skills of health personnel" was applied, with a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.94, guaranteeing the reliability of the instrument; through the Likert scale applied to 22 nursing professionals from the neonatology area of the Ambato General Hospital. Results: 70% of the relatives reported that the reinteraction of information would be one of the strategies that would help improve communication with the nursing staff, agreeing with the responses of the nursing staff. More than 40.9% of the nursing staff mentioned that although bodily communication is an important axis, health personnel demonstrate it in a personal way, as highlighted in the interviews, the most cited actions were eye contact and smiling. Conclusions: Nursing staff need to maintain a correct therapeutic alliance with patients, the implementation of a communication guide will facilitate compliance with this context. Therefore, it is necessary to develop these skills in health professionals