Publication Date
Spring 2025
Degree Type
Doctoral Project
Degree Name
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Department
Nursing
First Advisor
Lisa Walker-Vischer
Keywords
Improving Nurse-Physician Communication With Caritas
Abstract
Nurses are the eyes and ears at the bedside during a patient’s hospital stay. They are responsible for communicating significant changes in a patient’s health status, mainly to their physician partners. Unfortunately, good communication between nurses and doctors is a shortcoming of the nursing profession. Seven thousand reviewed malpractice lawsuits were directly related to poor provider communication, resulting in $1.7 billion in malpractice cases and 2,000 preventable deaths. These communication errors also lead to prolonged hospital delays in care, underscoring the need for improved communication. These poor outcomes compromise patients’ lives, safety, and well-being and decrease patient satisfaction scores, ultimately reducing government reimbursement. Nurses have been described as an oppressed profession, which is mainly due to the physician hierarchy in hospitals. There is a call to action in nursing to cultivate Jean Watson’s 10 Caritas processes to help nurses improve their transpersonal relationships. The goal of this study was to provide coaching to nurses on an ICU/Tele unit on how to use Caritas daily to help improve RN/MD communication and relationships. While there was no significant statistical data to prove the intervention was effective, there were notable behavior changes in the nurses that showed a difference in the length of stay, patients’ perception of care on the unit, and positive feedback from physicians. This study suggests that if Caritas is introduced early in a nurse's orientation to the organization and nursing education, nurses can have a greater impact at the bedside and have improved transpersonal relationships with their physician partners.
Recommended Citation
Yracheta, Deborah M., "Improving Nurse Confidence Around Communication with Physician Partners Through the Caritas Processes" (2025). Doctoral Projects. 180.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.t662-7u9c
https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_doctoral/180
