Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
Narrative Interview Participants’ Themes
The OR team relationship themes were found in the thematic
coding as the importance of respect, relationships, collaboration,
trust and open communication. These ideas stem from the analysis
of the narrative interview participant reflections and they define
several concepts which were continually discussed in the interviews.
These concepts are mutual respect, developing relationships, the
need for positive communicative intent, consistent use of language
and meaning, the idea of trust, team collaboration, an importance
of creating positive attitudes, supportive interactions, open
communication, and a need to explore the use of the medical
hierarchy. After compiling the narrative responses 83% of the
participants’ ideas as related to the culture of safety pointed to the
importance and use of open and collaborative communication within
a team environment.
The Narrative Joining of Perspectives
Important things to remember. All of the participants’
perceptions pointed to the idea that there is no easy way to create
the path to the culture of safety as it involves an evolution of
communication interactions. However, it appears clear from the
perspective of this study’s 19 participants that developing
relationships encompassing trust, respect and open communication
are important parts of establishing a culture of safety. The
participants identified another idea in that healthcare professionals
have to find a way to continue to redefine the use and or structure
of the medical hierarchy in an effort to develop respectful
relationships which encourage and value difference in professional
backgrounds as potential contributors and team members.
Lost in the margins. Noticeable throughout these
conversations is that the nurse-physician relationship continues to
come to the forefront and dominate the conversation. The
dominance is evident even when there are others speaking who are
not individuals within these professional groups. Therefore, one
would suspect that the other team players in this environment tend
to get lost in the margins of conversations.
CMM Heuristics
Within the context of this study as I explored healthcare
communication one of the values I found of thematic analysis is its
ability to reduce a large amount of talk to recurring themes, and to
sort those themes among the types of people producing that talk.
However, my research questions asked about communication
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