Cultural and systematic barriers to communication between nurses and family members in the ICU

Families need honest and clear information in order to make decisions about patient care. The study points to many cultural and systemic barriers to good nurse-family communication in intensive care units (ICUs). These barriers include time constraint, language barriers, culture differences, or emotional stress. As communication is key to patient/family outcomes, there is thus a need for more insight and understanding into why and how this occurs. The purpose of this study is to explore the cultural and systematic barriers that hinder effective communication between ICU nurses and family members in Jordanian healthcare settings.

An explorative qualitative approach was used to conduct the study, involving semi-structured interviews with 15 ICU nurses and 15 family members. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis framework.

The findings revealed two main themes: cultural barriers to communication, with sub-themes including cultural expectations, family-centered care, and mistrust between family members and ICU nurses; and systematic barriers to communication in the ICU, with sub-themes including time pressure and heavy workloads, institutional policies and hierarchies, and inadequate medical explanations.

Nurse-family engagement can be strengthened through structured protocols to address cultural hierarchies and institutional constraints as a novel approach to enhancing patient-centeredness, though Jordanian healthcare families seek such approaches.