Videophone conversations between a nurse and an at-home caregiver providing for a loved one who is sick provide valuable emotional information for both parties that would be lost in a traditional telephone call, new research co-authored by a Yale School of Public Health researcher has found.
Joan K. Monin, Ph.D., assistant professor in the division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology and in the Social and Behavioral Sciences program, along with colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh, identified a range of facial expressions that are revealed during videophone conversations. They found that both the nurse and the at-home caregiver revealed important emotional cues through subtle facial expressions, indicating feelings as diverse as happiness, concern and sorrow.
Such nonverbal communication provides important information to both parties, enhancing the caregiver-nurse relationship and potentially improving the level of care the patient receives. The at-home caregiver benefits by knowing that another person understands and has empathy for what they are experiencing. The nurse benefits by gleaning more information on what is happening and, thus, is better able to provide more specific, useful and speedy advice to the caregiver.
“Nonverbal behavior is crucial to effective nurse-client relationships,” said Monin. “Just relying on verbal communication might reduce the amount of empathy that people have for one another. To provide responsive support to their clients, nurses need to be able to see the whole picture.”
Millions of adults in the United States alone are actively providing at-home care for sick family members. In some cases, nurses are able to visit the home and have face-to-face consultations. In many cases, however, nurses rely primarily on telephone calls to get updates and to assess how things are going.
“The research indicates that telenursing consultations could greatly enhance the quality of at-home care. To my knowledge there are no current statistics on how widely telenursing is being used, Monin said.
The researchers used the standardized Facial Action Coding System to measure and classify the type and range of expressions that both parties exhibited. Even subtle changes in the areas around a person’s eyes and mouth can convey important information. People are often unaware that they have communicated such feelings.
The study was published in the journal Telemedicine and e-Health. Co-authors on the study are Karen L. Schmidt, Amanda Gentry and Karen L. Courtney.