Nurse-patient communication in the intensive care unit: a review of the literature.

Patient care within an intensive care unit (ICU) can be a difficult and stressful task for even the most experienced and skilled critical care nurse. Good communication between the patient, relatives and nurse is integral to quality care of the patient and should extend to the entire health-care team. This article reviews the literature on nurse-patient communication in the ICU. While numerous research studies have been completed, they are predominantly qualitative and descriptive. Recent studies have investigated the patients' perceptions and recollections of the communication that transpired between them and nurses while they were cared for within an ICU. The literature indicates that nurses communicate extremely poorly with patients, despite a high level of knowledge and skill with respect to communication. Tentative explanations of high stress levels, a preoccupation with physical care and technology, and the attraction to critical care areas of nurses with specific personality types are discussed as possible reasons for this. The need for further research into, and attempts to alleviate, this problem is clearly demonstrated.