Awareness and extent of knowledge of taxonomies of nonverbal communication channels among healthcare providers in South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Communication is vital between health care providers and their clients. Though not often studied, nonverbal communication has been found to be a vital element within the total communication process. Its place in healthcare provision cannot be overemphasized. With various taxonomies or channels of nonverbal communication, the purpose of this study was to ascertain healthcare providers’ ability to identify the taxonomies of nonverbal communication. Participants for the study were healthcare providers at the antenatal clinic of three Tertiary Health Institutions in South Eastern Nigeria. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire. Statistical analysis of data was performed using Chi-square. Significant level was placed at p<0.05. Findings showed that all the healthcare providers were aware of nonverbal communication. Predominant numbers of health care providers use nonverbal communication to interact with their clients (X²=8.167, p<0.05) and significant numbers of the healthcare providers did not show gender bias in attending to their clients (X²=5.638, p<0.05). However, insignificant numbers of healthcare providers did not apply their knowledge of proxemics and chrone Verbalmics (X²=1.333; p=0.248 & X²=1.286; p=0.257) respectively nor did they understand the taxonomies of kinesics, chronemics, haptics and proxemics. The finding in this study, showed poor understanding of taxonomies of nonverbal communication channels amongst the healthcare providers despite widespread awareness of nonverbal communication. This study thereby concludes that nonverbal communication may be poorly taught in medical school possibly due to non-existence of a curriculum tailored to suit the training.