Correlation between nurses' attitude and practice toward communication with patients of decreased level of consciousness and its relationship with ethical care in ICU: A cross‐sectional study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Communication between intensive care unit (ICU) nurses and patients with decreased Level of Consciousness (DLOC) is now regarded as a difficult task. Proper communication is regarded as a crucial component of care and stems from the attitude and practice of nurses. Intensive care nurses are responsible for providing care to patients with DLOC in accordance with ethical principles because care and ethics cannot be separated. To better understand ICU nurses' attitudes and practice toward communicating with patients who have decreased levels of consciousness and how this affects the provision of ethical care, the current study was conducted. METHODS: This is a cross‐sectional study. Two hundred ICU nurses from southeast Iran took part in this study. Three questioners, including attitude and practice toward communicating with patients who decreased Levels of consciousness, and ethical Care were used as data collection tools. RESULTS: The mean score for ICU nurses' attitude, practice, and ethical care towards communicating with patients with DLOC were, respectively, 4.02 ± 0.45,2.91 ± 0.49. The findings demonstrated a very weak correlation between the ICU nurses' attitude score and communication practice for DLOC patients (p = 0.04; r = 0.14). CONCLUSION: Nurses who had a more positive attitude toward communicating with DLOC patients performed better in this area. It is suggested that nurses employed in ICUs should be monitored and judged based on how well they communicate with DLOC patients through workshops and conferences. By doing this, they would become more cognizant of the necessity for and effective methods of communication with these patients as well as the repercussions of their poor communication practice.