Healthcare Providers’ Professional Arts during Antenatal Care and Appropriate Taxonomies of Nonverbal Communication

Abstract

Nonverbal communication channels of healthcare providers have a significant impact on patients during consultations. The study was undertaken to place the professional arts of the healthcare providers into the appropriate taxonomy of nonverbal communication. Two different sets of questionnaire were administered to pregnant women and to healthcare providers. Non-participant observation report was also made. The study was carried out at three Teaching Hospitals in South East Nigeria. 133 pregnant women and 26 healthcare providers were randomly recruited for the study. Variables were expressed in percentages and Chi-square test was used for determination of level of association. Significant level was placed at p<0.05. The findings of the study showed that a predominant number of healthcare providers had handshakes with their clients (X2= 56.903; p<0.05), smile with their clients (X2= 21.160; p<0.05), palpate their clients’ abdomen (X2= 30.260; p<0.05) and conduct physical examination of their clients (8.167; p<0.05). The study also showed that the nonverbal interactions created satisfaction and allayed the worries of the clients (X2=60.552; p<0.05 & X2= 57.800; p<0.05). The dress code/uniform and chronological age elicited respect (4.263; p<0.05). Other professional arts include eye contact, body language, consulting room, sitting arrangements and posters on the wall. These professional arts fall into artifactual communication, haptic, kinesics and proxemics while the time the healthcare provider spends with clients falls into chronemics. The study concludes that the diverse professional arts of healthcare providers fall into various taxonomy of nonverbal communication. This study thus recommends formal training in nonverbal communication for healthcare providers.