From anticipation to confidence: A descriptive qualitative study of new graduate nurse communication with physicians

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to understand how new graduate nurses experience communication with physicians.

Background: Communication is necessary for high-quality health care delivery. With poor patient outcomes as a driving force, knowledge of the dialogue that occurs between new graduate nurses and physicians has been rarely explored.

Methods: This qualitative descriptive study involved 13 new graduate nurses from an academic teaching hospital in the south-eastern United States. Data for this study were collected using face-to-face and virtual interviews with a focus on having nurses describe their experience communication with physicians in their current practice.

Results: Analysis led to four themes that describe new graduate nurses experience communicating with physicians. Those themes were gaps in preparation, developing confidence, learning to communicate, and interprofessional care.

Conclusions: Effective communication with physicians is a stressor for new graduate nurses as they transition to practice. For these nurses, negative emotions in their anticipation of communicating with physicians were developed during their educational experience.

Implications for nursing management: The findings of this study emphasize the importance of enhanced interprofessional training in education and practice that facilitate effective communication between the two professions in the practice environment.

Keywords: communication; education; interprofessional; patient safety; qualitative.