Barriers to communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Barriers to communication - Essay Example Nurses fail to listen properly due to many reasons. Firstly, nurses have to keep up with the demand of their job all the time - which involves running from one bed to another, and taking care of many patients with individual and unique requirements within short notice. As a consequence, studies point out, that nurses fail to "listen" carefully to their patients owing to lack of time - they prefer hearing them out for a formality. Secondly, nurses are afflicted with a disease called "predisposition". Their prejudice on many vital areas causes them to ignore individual and unique patient needs, which automatically leads to a communication breakdown. Lack of patience among patience arises because of their lack of participation in a conversation, where they have to primarily play the role of a listener. This leads to irritability and loss of patience. "In each interaction, it was the STAFF who controlled the time, place, participants, structure, purpose, topics and language, as well as the form and style of discourse. There were few opportunities for patients to influence the agenda."1(Cass, Alan, et al.: Sharing true stories: improving communication between aboriginal patients and healthcare workers, 2002.) The difference in the gender of patients and nurses leads to many awkward and natural difficulties in communication, and magnifies in cases