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Ethics in the communicative encounter: seriously ill patients' experiences of health professionals' nonverbal communication
Author(s) -
Timmermann Connie,
Uhrenfeldt Lisbeth,
Birkelund Regner
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of caring sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.678
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1471-6712
pISSN - 0283-9318
DOI - 10.1111/scs.12316
Subject(s) - nonverbal communication , meaning (existential) , body language , interpretation (philosophy) , psychology , qualitative research , tone (literature) , health professionals , nursing , medicine , social psychology , developmental psychology , health care , communication , psychotherapist , linguistics , sociology , philosophy , social science , economics , economic growth
Background The communicative encounter has been described as a fundamental element in caring for the patients, and further, in this encounter, the nonverbal body language and the tone of speech are agued to play a crucial role. Aim This study explores how seriously ill hospitalised patients experience and assign meaning to the health professionals' communication with special attention to the nonverbal body language and tone of speech. The study is part of a larger study exploring how seriously ill patients experience and assign meaning to the sensory impressions in the physical hospital environment as well as to the health professionals' communication. Method The study is based on qualitative interviews supplemented by observations and applies Paul Ricoeur's phenomenological‐hermeneutic theory of interpretation in processing the collected data. We included twelve patients with potentially life‐threatening illnesses such as cancer, severe lung, liver and heart disease. Findings Through analysis and interpretation of the interviews, we identified two themes in the text: (i) Being confirmed , (ii) Being ignored and an inconvenience . The patients experienced that the health professionals' nonverbal communication was imperative for their experience of being confirmed or in contrast, their experience of being ignored and an inconvenience. Conclusion The health professionals' nonverbal communication proved essential for the seriously ill patients' experience of well‐being in the form of positive thoughts and emotions. Consequently, this sensory dimension of the communicative encounter represents a significant ethical element in caring for the patients.