Oral communication with hematologic patients: facilitating and blocking behaviors

Abstract

In this descriptive study we adopted the model of FORREST (1983) for the categorization of oral utterances by the members of the nursing team when caring for hematological patients with oncological alterations. In order to identify the frequency of facilitating(F) and blocking(B) categories of communication and of their subcategories, we videotaped and observed the interactions between 8 patients and 14 members of the Nursing team in a Teaching Hospital in the city of Ribeirão Preto- SP. We recorded 8822 categories, 56,9% of which were facilitating. The most frequent of these were: providing information (50,3%), clarifying (28,0%) and recognizing the presence (11,2%). The most frequent blocking categories were: closed questions (64,6%), giving advice (13,9%) and approving or agreeing (10%). The remaining F and B subcategories were observed at frequencies of less than 4,5%. We suggest the more frequent use of other facilitating categories and the use of closed questions in special situations. We believe that, for a more profound relationship between nursing team and patients, it is of fundamental importance to reduce the "giving advice" and "approval" categories as they are being used now.