Communication between therapists and nurses working in inpatient interprofessional teams: systematic review and meta-ethnography

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of the synthesis was to develop a new understanding about the influences on communication in interprofessional teams from therapist and nurse perspectives.

Methods: Six electronic databases were searched, combined with citation tracking and hand searching, yielded 3994 papers. Three researchers were involved in screening and quality appraisal, resulting in 18 papers for synthesis, using the process of meta-ethnography. Concepts were identified, compared and translated under five category headings. Two researchers mapped interpretative summaries and a line of argument was created.

Results: The line of argument is that four inter-related contingences underpin effective communication between therapists and nurses. Effective communication depends on there being a genuine need to give and receive information for patient care, the capacity to attend to, hold, and use information, and opportunities to share space to enable communication to occur. The fourth contingency is good quality relationships and this is the glue that holds the contingencies together.

Conclusion: This synthesis has provided an opportunity to illuminate how therapists and nurses accomplish interprofessional work through communication. The contingencies of need, capacity, opportunity, and quality of relationships create a new structure for understanding what underpins communication between these two groups.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Need, capacity and opportunity should be understood as contingencies that underpin effective communication about patients, strongly centered on the fourth contingency, quality of relationships between professionals.

• Therapists and nurses should examine what information they genuinely need from each other to effectively conduct integrated care, from the perspective of both giving and receiving information.

• Consideration should be given to whether a culture of reciprocity might expand the capacity of professionals to attend to, hold and use the information they share about patients.

• Therapists and nurses should examine how the way they share space on the ward creates or limits their opportunities to communicate about patients and develop relationships.

Keywords:

• Communication
• relationships
• interprofessional
• therapist
• nursing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.