Communication in nurse-patient interaction in healthcare settings in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review

Abstract Background Patients’ full participation or nonparticipation in the care process, compliance with medical advice, and taking personal control of their health, to some extent, are influenced by the quality of nurse-patient interaction and communication. The impact of poor communication among nurses can be detrimental to the quality of care, nursing practices, and safety, which suggests that communication competence is a required skill in the nursing profession. The aim of this review was to explore communication strategies in nurse-patient interaction and how that affects patient participation in the care process in sub-Saharan Africa and to identify the major findings and gaps in the literature. Methods To undertake this scoping review, key-words such as nurse-patient, provider-patient, nurse-client, nurse-healthcare consumer, interact*, communication, relationship, Africa, and Africa south of the Sahara were used and combined with the Boolean operators OR/AND. Thirty-two studies were retained for this current review, which included 29 articles, two theses, and one dissertation. Results The study found that communication in nurse-patient interaction has been researched in a few countries in sub-Sahara Africa in HIV/AIDS, maternal and reproductive care, intensive and palliative care, operative/postoperative care, and primary healthcare settings. The results suggested that nurse-patient communication studies need to extend to other healthcare contexts. Furthermore, in many of the healthcare areas studied, nurse-patient communication has been poor, with care providers dominating the process. Most nurses neglect patient needs and concerns as well as abuse and humiliate them, especially in maternal/antenatal and primary healthcare settings in public healthcare facilities. Excessive workload, shortages of nursing staff, poor communication skills, and lack of involvement of nursing managers in the care process negatively impacts on nurses’ ability to interact effectively with their clients. Conclusion We thus argue for the inclusion of communication skills in nursing training programs as well as the engagement of nursing managers and healthcare administrators in strengthening communication within the nurse-patient dyad.