Isma Banoa, Momina Maqboola, Amna Rafiquea, Nargis Abdul Rehmana, Muhammad Zubairb, Rubina Fiaza, Samana Batoola
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Effective nurse-patient communication is essential to timely triage, accurate diagnosis, and safe therapeutic response in the emergency department (ED), yet this communication is frequently compromised by structural, relational, and contextual pressures, particularly in high-volume, resource-limited public tertiary care settings. Despite substantial international evidence on this issue, nurse-patient communication barriers had not been formally investigated in the Emergency Department of Government Teaching Hospital, Shahdara, Lahore. Objective: To identify the nurse-patient communication barriers perceived by registered nurses in the Emergency Department. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among 124 registered nurses, selected through convenience sampling in the Emergency Department of Government Teaching Hospital, Shahdara, Lahore, Pakistan, over a six-month period from January to June 2026. Data were collected using the validated 27-item Barriers in Communication Questionnaire, assessing six domains: demographic, knowledge-related, environmental, social, economic, and psychological factors. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 26; descriptive statistics summarized demographic characteristics and domain- and total-level barrier scores, and reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Results: All participants were female, with a mean age of 31.4 ± 6.2 years and mean clinical experience of 5.8 ± 3.9 years. The overall barrier score was 70.8% (SD = 12.76), placing the sample at the threshold of the high-barrier category; 57.3% of nurses reported moderate barriers and 39.5% reported high barriers, while only 3.2% reported good communication. Environmental factors were the most heavily endorsed domain (81.5%), followed by knowledge-related (72.1%) and economic factors (71.8%), all falling within the high-barrier range; psychological factors were also elevated (69.2%), while social (66.2%) and demographic factors (64.2%) fell within the moderate-barrier range. The questionnaire demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.841). Conclusion: Nurse-patient communication barriers were highly prevalent and multidimensional among ED nurses in this public tertiary care hospital, with environmental, workload-related, knowledge, and economic factors emerging as the most prominent. Multi-level interventions addressing staffing, training, remuneration, and psychological support are recommended to strengthen communication and, by extension, patient safety.
TL;DRNurse-patient communication barriers were highly prevalent and multidimensional among ED nurses in this public tertiary care hospital, with environmental, workload-related, knowledge, and economic factors emerging as the most prominent. (Semantic Scholar)
