Never Say “NO” (Strategies for Nurses to Communicate Politely)

Abstract

Effective communication is the cornerstone of quality patient care and nurses are essential in fostering understanding, compassion, and respect in their interactions with patients, families, and other healthcare professionals. In the current healthcare system, one of the frequent complaints that patients express on post-discharge satisfaction surveys is rude behavior of the staff. By directly saying “NO”, nurses make patients to feel unwanted and neglected. Many times, this neglect has landed in the loss of patient attachment and lead to an increased risk of liability and dissatisfaction. In this article the impact of saying no to the patient and alternative strategiesof saying no has been discussed