UMEM Educational Pearls

Title: Physician-Nurse Communication in ED Care

Keywords: Communication, Teamwork (PubMed Search)

Posted: 1/28/2026 by Mercedes Torres, MD
Click here to contact Mercedes Torres, MD

How well does your ED care team communicate? For some high yield strategies and reasons for improvement, read on…

To explore effective and ineffective communication in the ED and its impact of patient care, physician and nurses from several academic EDs completed an online anonymous survey, then attended focus group sessions. Responses highlighted the following themes:

1: Situations, built physical environment, and medium of communications all impact quality of communication.

Face-to-face communication was most appreciated
Common work areas facilitate communication
Electronic communications had highest risk of misinterpretation and being ignored/missed

2: Core elements of desired professional communication include respect, closed-loop communication, and attention, often conveyed through non-verbal behaviors.

Making eye contact
Turning toward a speaker
Nodding at appropriate moments
Acknowledging active listening

3: Poor communication begets poor communication in later interactions

ENs may hesitate to share important information if there has been a prior negative interaction with that EP

4: Effective communication is seen as fundamental to patient care but also has impacts beyond patient care

Creates a shared understanding of the patient’s clinical status and care plan
Guides clinical actions
Affects the team’s ability to communicate with patients and families
Has spillover effects, impacting care beyond any single case, as it affects the “feeling” of the entire department

5: Clinician gender and gender dyads influence communication dynamics, age and experience dyads did not.

Greatest communication conflict (noted by both disciplines) involved communication in female/female physician/nurse dyads

Do any of these themes resonate with you? What can you do within your department to improve physician-nurse communication and the care you provide?

References

Jones DC, Phillips J, Graveson A, et al. Emergency Physician and Emergency Nurse Communication in the Emergency Department: A Mixed-methods Study. West J Emerg Med. 2026;27(1)91–98.