title: Communicator styles of hospital patients during nurse-patient counseling.
abstract: This article describes nurse-patient communication during counseling sessions. It focuses on the patient as a participant in a discussion and aims at a description of patients' communicator styles, which were observed on videotape based on 38 counseling sessions transcribed word by the word. Interviews of the participating nurses and patients were used for partial support of the interpretations. The analytic method chosen was typology, and it has been used for achieving a multifaceted qualitative description of patient communication. The research material yielded seven types of communicator styles: Quietly Assenting, Emotionally Expressive, Storyteller, Stoic Observer, Inquisitive of Detail, Dominant, and Critical Self-observer. The communicator styles were indicative of the multitude of ways in which patients participate in counseling discussions and they make it possible to describe the varying expressions of patient communication. This article presents new background information on patient communication and the outcome may prove to be useful for developing health counseling.
authors.affiliation: University of Jyväskylä, Faculty of Sport Sciences, Department of Health Sciences, Box 35, 40351 Jyväskylä, Finland. tkettune@cone.jyu.fi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kettunen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Poskiparta
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liimatainen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003142:Communication; D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D010358:Patient Participation