Abstract—Head nurses play important roles in communication among staff. However, there is no evidence to confirm to what extent physicians and nurses rely on head nurses to communicate. This study was designed to explore the importance of head nurses in communication among physicians and nurses. Using 11 nursing units of two hospitals in Taiwan as examples, we applied social network analysis (SNA) on analyzing networking properties among staff to see the role of head nurses in communication. Results of SNA showed that the ranges of network centralization for interaction and advice-seeking networks were from 19.85% to 81.82%. Therefore, it is important to enhance the communication skills of head nurses. Equipment and technology to facilitate communication among providers are also very important.
Index Terms—Social network analysis, network centralization, communications.
Chia-Hui Wang is with Hwa-Hsia University of Technology, New Taipei 23568, Taiwan (e-mail: chwang@cc.hwh.edu.tw).
Kathryn Anthony is with University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign 61820, USA (e-mail: kanthony@illinois.edu).
Nai-Wen Kuo is with Taipei Medical University, Taipei11031, Taiwan (e-mail: nwkuo@tmu.edu.tw).
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Cite: Chia-Hui Wang, Kathryn Anthony, and Nai-Wen Kuo, "The Role of Head Nurse on Communication: A Social Network Approach," International Journal of Future Computer and Communication vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 43-46, 2016.
