Nurse and patient characteristics associated with duration of nurse talk during patient encounters in ICU

Communication interactions between nurses and mechanically ventilated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are typically brief. Factors associated with length of nurses' communication have not been explored.

To examine the association between nurse and patient characteristics and duration of nurse talk.

In this secondary analysis, we calculated duration of nurse talk in the first 3-min of video-recorded communication observation sessions for each nurse-patient dyad (n = 89) in the SPEACS study (4 observation sessions/dyad, n = 356). In addition, we explored the association between nurses' characteristics (age, gender, credentials, nursing experience, and critical care experience) and patients' characteristics (age, gender, race, education, delirium, agitation-sedation, severity of illness, level of consciousness, prior intubation history, days intubated prior to study enrollment, and type of intubation) on duration of nurse talk during the 3-min interaction observation.

Duration of nurse talk ranged from 0-123 s and varied significantly over the 4 observation sessions (p = .007). Averaging the duration of nurse talk over the observation sessions, differences in talk time between the units varied significantly by study group (p < .001). Talk duration was negatively associated with a Glasgow Coma Scale ≤14 (p = .008). Length of intubation prior to study enrollment had a curvilinear relationship with talking duration (linear p = .002, quadratic p = .013); the point of inflection was at 23 days. Nurse characteristics were not significantly related to duration of nurse talk.

Length of time the patient is intubated, and the patient's level of consciousness may influence duration of nurse communication in ICU.