NURSE-PHYSICIAN COMMUNICATION IN PATIENT CARE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS OF HARARI REGIONAL STATE AND DIRE DAWA ADMINISTRATION, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Background: Clear and respectful inter-professional communication between Nurses and Physicians in patient care is crucial both for patients and patients‟ families. Numerous studies showed that a communication gap between Nurses and Physicians are the leading causes of adverse medical events that could compromise the quality of patient care. Even if some studies have been conducted, there is a gap in assessing the level of Nurse-Physician Communication and studying the issue in a mixed study design way. In addition, although more studies relatively conducted in developed countries, in the extent of the researcher knowledge, it is lacking in Africa, especially very little in Ethiopia and moreover, nothing is done in the study area. Objective: To assess the level of Nurse-Physician communication in patient care and associated factors in public hospitals of Harari Regional State and Dire Dawa Administration, Eastern Ethiopia, from March 07, 2019 to April 07, 2019. Methods: An institution based quantitative and phenomenological qualitative cross-sectional study designs were conducted. Quantitative Data were collected from a total of 440 participants using pretested, structured and English-version self-administered questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regressions were computed. Variables having a 𝑝-value less than 0.05 in the multivariate analysis were considered as cutoff point as statistical significance. Qualitative data were collected using semi-structured, Amharic-version in-depth interview questions and analyzed by a thematic analysis method with the help of Open-Code version 4.02 Software. Results: Overall results showed that the level of Nurse-Physician Communication in patient care was poor (53.2% (95%CI: 48.9-58.0)). Those in the age group of 31-40 (AOR=0.421, 95%CI: 0.245-0.724), ever married (AOR=2.279, 95%CI: 1.409-3.686), Nurses (AOR=2.357, 95%CI: 1.225-4.537), salary class of 2250-3562 (AOR=0.254, 95%CI: 0.076-0.843), high report for organizational(AOR=0.578, 95%CI: 0.362-0.924) and work attitude related factors (AOR=0.616, 95%CI: 0.386-0.984) were statistically associated with level of Nurse-Physician communication. Conclusion: This study showed that the level of Nurse-Physician communication in patient care was poor (53.2% with 95% CI: 48.6-58.0). Having higher age, being married, being Nurse and higher payment as well as high report for work attitude related and organizational related factors were the potential predictors for Nurse-Physician communication. Therefore, much work is needed to improve Nurse-Physician communication through the respective stakeholders