Pattern of communication between patients in a Brazilian government hospital

Abstract

In a situation of verbal interaction in hospital nursing, the authors explore the context of the patient with the objective of verifying the pattern of communicaton between patients. The data were obtained by direct observation of the verbal behavior of a sample of 10 patients with their hospital roommates. The data were analyzed by judges and classified in light of the Bales instrument. The results point to the following pattern of communication: 83,1% neutral interaction, 8,8% positive social-emotional interaction, and 8,1% negative social-emotional interaction. The authors discuss these results, stimulating nurses to reassess the value of communication in the nursing process.