The Status, Challenges, and Solutions of Professional and Interprofessional Communications in Nursing in Iran: A Review Study

The ability of proper communication is the core issue in all nursing care. Effective professional inter-professional communication is necessary for ensuring the coordination of care, improvement of satisfaction, and overall health outcomes of patients. The present study aimed to determine the status of professional and inter-professional communication in the nursing of Iran. In addition, attempts were made to recognize problems in the field and discuss their consequences and coping strategies.

This was a review study, and data were obtained through searching databases of Science Direct, Google Scholar, SID, and PubMed to find published articles regardless of their date of publication and language.

The primary search with keywords of “nurse” or “nursing student”, “physician”, or “doctor” or “resident”, “patient”, “communication”, or “teamwork” or “cooperation” or “interaction, and “professional communication” or “inter-professional communication” or “interpersonal communication” (both in Farsi and English) resulted in detecting a total of 7181 studies. However, 20 related articles were selected for review in the final assessment stage. The data gathered in the field of communication of nurses was discussed in three areas of nurse-physician, nurse-nurse, and nurse-patient and family communications.

Studies emphasized the importance of teamwork and inter-professional competencies more than ever. It is recommended that educational programs include inter-professional and teamwork training so that the triangular process of physician-nurse-patient communication is formed in the educational environment in a way that students can work in teams and have inter-professional cooperation in line with achieving healthcare goals.