The average emergency room patient is not receiving the compassionate nurse-patient communication that patients experience on other hospital floors. Fewer positive nurse-patient interactions prompt patients to state that they feel uncomforted and dissatisfied on hospital exit surveys, inciting hospital management to investigate how to reverse this trend to retain their federal funding. Emergency room nurses cite multiple barriers inherent in their work environment that prevent them from building rapport with their patients, including a layout not conducive to private conversations, strict time constraints, and a fluctuating workload. Working for a prolonged period under these conditions is driving many nurses to quit the specialty and even the profession altogether, putting patients at risk of increased complications due to having a revolving door of novice nurses treating them. Cutting-edge research on nurse-patient communication in the emergency room setting indicates that altering the emergency room layout, implementing a waiting-room nurse practitioner role, and decreasing the nurse-patient staffing ratio are all clinically successful solutions
