Speak Your Truth: Proven Strategies for Effective Nurse-Physician Communication

Bonus: Earn 4 Nursing Contact Hours!

"Unprecedented, brilliant, and right on target! Kathleen Bartholomew has dared to speak the truth about one of the greatest threats we face in patient safety: Dysfunctional physician-nurse communication and relationships."
—John J. Nance, JD, Founding Member of the National Patient Safety Foundation

"This is a must read for physicians, nurses, or anyone trapped in a traditionally subservient role, regardless of whether that role is work-related or not."
—Allen R. Wyler, MD, neurosurgeon, author of Deadly Errors

Honest, witty, and empowering

Speak Your Truth: Proven Strategies for Effective Nurse-Physician Communication, by Kathleen Bartholomew, RN, BS, is witty and entertaining, and drives home the mission-critical message: Breakdowns in nurse-physician communication and relationships are disastrous to patient care and emotionally disruptive to all those in the profession.

A book of empowerment

This book takes you through a journey, and leaves you with effective strategies for improving your own nurse-physician relationships. Bartholomew does this with captivating anecdotal scenarios and authentic, tangible advice—from one nurse to another.

It's a fact

Dysfunctional interactions with physicians often leave nurses feeling intimidated and force them to throw up their hands in frustration. Or worse, it results in compromised patient care.

Put a stop to the struggle.

Speak Your Truth will help nurses:

• Understand why some physicians act the way they do
• Take responsibility for their part in the communication breakdown that occurs between nurses and physicians
• Recognize the different communication problems that occur between physicians and nurses
• Take the right steps to achieve mutual respect
• Learn to not take negative interactions personally
• Confront their physician counterparts effectively
• Reflect and remember the importance of their profession

Using engaging case scenarios, critical-thinking activities, and real-world tips, Speak Your Truth will help nurses understand and communicate with physicians. It will guide and empower nurses to develop an effective nurse-physician relationship—one that fosters patient safety and mutual respect, finally allowing you to speak your truth.

This book is written especially for:

Staff nurses of all specialties
Nursing students
Nurse managers
Charge nurses
Directors of nursing
Chief nursing officers

Others who would benefit from this book:

Physicians
Residents
Medical students

Take a look at what your colleagues say about Speak Your Truth:

"Kathleen Bartholomew, a gifted nurse and teacher, explores many of the dysfunctional dynamics destroying the morale of healthcare professionals, and she does it with a fresh, deadly serious voice interspersed with delightful humor that also inspires change. This is a must read for physicians, nurses, or anyone trapped in a traditionally subservient role, regardless of whether that role is work-related or not."
—Allen R. Wyler, MD, neurosurgeon, author of Deadly Errors, a novel about medical errors

"Written with heart and stunning frankness, this seminal work is a how-to manual for achieving a rapid Renaissance in collegial practice. "
—John J. Nance, JD, A Founding Board Member of the National Patient Safety Foundation

"Kathleen uses the vehicle of story, liberally seasoned with humor, to present imaginative and creative approaches to age-old problems with communications between nurses and doctors."
—Genevieve Bartol, RN, EdD, AHN-C(P), Professor Emeritus, University of North Carolina, Greensboro

"This book is a 'must read' for all those nurses who want to enhance communication with physicians to create healthy, productive collegial relationships and improve patient care. Ms. Bartholomew analyzes and interprets all too familiar personal stories using a backdrop of theory to help us understand why we find ourselves in distressing interactions with physicians and how we can take action to initiate a process of healing."
 —Linda J. Westbrook, RN, PhD, Assistant Professor, Nursing Program, University of Washington, Bothell

"Kathleen's work illuminates and defines a murky and omnipresent problem that has a strangle hold on the heart of the nursing profession."
—Chancey Boye, RN

About the Author:

Kathleen Bartholomew, RN, has been the manager of a 57-bed orthopedic and spine unit in a tertiary hospital in Seattle for five years. As a registered nurse and counselor, Bartholomew uses story to shed light on the challenges and issues facing nurses today. She is currently enrolled in the Master's program at the University of Washington and has proposed this book as her thesis. Her strength is her ability to link the academic world with the practical reality of the hospital.Bartholomew has been a national speaker for the nursing profession for the past four years.

Earn 4 nursing contact hours!

Accreditation Statement

HCPro is accredited as a provider of continuing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center Commission on Accreditation.

Credit Designation Statement

This educational activity for 4 nursing contact hours is provided by HCPro, Inc.

Learning Objectives:

Chapter 1