Aim: To explore communication research in nursing by investigating the theoretical approaches, methods, content and perspectives in research on real‐time registered nurse (RN)–patient communication.Design: An integrative review of real‐time communication between RNs and patients.Data Sources: Empirical research papers were searched in PubMed, CINAHL Plus and Medline. The results from the database searches were supplemented with results from manual searches in reference lists.Review Methods: A total of 1369 articles published between January 1996 and December 2021 were screened, which resulted in the inclusion of 52 articles.Results: The integration of various theories, such as nursing or communication theories, is weak in most of the included studies. RN–patient communication appears to influence relationship building. Even when nurses strive to meet patients' needs, they often focus primarily on nursing routines and physical care. The topic of the communication varies depending on the situation and different communication styles are used. When a patient‐centred approach is adopted, the interpersonal communication becomes quite symmetrical, with complementary roles of nurses and patients. Within a more asymmetric communication context, nurses dominate communication, choose topics and function as instructors. How the nurses communicated subsequently influenced the patients' communication styles and strategies.Conclusion: Communication is multifaceted, contains different strategies and is important for building trust and facilitating patient‐centred care. The importance of RNs' communication for interaction and relationship‐building seems to be well established within research, but few studies focused on patients' communication with RNs.Impact: This integrative review gives an overview of the width and depth of observational studies on RN–patient communication research. The variety of studies indicates that this area is a less well‐grounded field of research. Future research is warranted to support nurses in their communication, especially regarding the exploration of patients' communication and desired communication skills in nurse–patient interactions.Patient or Public Contribution: No patient or public contribution was included in this integrative review.

The aim of this study was to explore the influence of characteristics of nurses and older people on emotional communication in home care settings. A generalized, linear, mixed model was used to analyze 188 audio‐recorded home care visits coded with Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences. The results showed that most emotional distress was expressed by older females or with female nurses. The elicitation of an expression of emotional distress was influenced by the nurses' native language and profession. Older women aged 65–84 years were given the most space for emotional expression. We found that emotional communication was primarily influenced by sex for nurses and older people, with an impact on the frequency of expressions of and responses to emotional distress. Expressions of emotional distress by older males were less common and could risk being missed in communication. The results have implications for students' and health professionals' education in increasing their knowledge of and attentiveness to the impacts of their and others' characteristics and stereotypes on emotional communication with older people.

Given the free movement of workers across countries, knowledge regarding communication differences between countries is imperative. In this study, we explored and compared the supportive responses of nursing staff to older persons' emotions in home care in Norway and Sweden. The study had an observational, cross-sectional, comparative design, which included 383 audio-recorded home-care visits. Communication was coded using Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequences. Worries and responses were categorised with regard to reference, communicative function and level of person-centredness. Standard statistical tests were used to analyse the data. The Swedish nursing staff provided space for further disclosure of worry more frequently than the Norwegian nursing staff (75.0 % versus 60.2 %, χ2 = 20.758, p < 0.01). In all, 65 % of the responses were supportive. Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that highly person-centred responses were independently associated with worries phrasing an emotion, OR (95 % CI) 3.282 (1.524-7.067). The level of person-centredness was associated with the way in which older persons expressed their distress. The Swedish nursing staff provided opportunities for further disclosure of worries more frequently than the Norwegian nursing staff. Findings of intercultural differences should be incorporated into the training of nursing staff.