Verbal communication between students in multidisciplinary health teams

The study reported here was connected with the influence of two variables--the context in which communication occurs, and the concept availability of various health professionals--upon the verbal interaction of various health professionals. Specifically, the verbal output of health professionals in groups consisting entirely of their own professional peers (i.e. all nurses, or all medical students) was compared with that of professionals in multidisciplinary health teams. The study, in attempting to delineate possible barriers to effective verbal interaction, has important implications for the functioning of multidisciplinary health teams.