Power Differential and Communication
- It is important that nurses acknowledge power differentials inherent in patient–practitioner relationships and make those contextual and personal adjustments to facilitate communication.
- Power differentials between people that are also relevant to healthcare encounters and may be superimposed on the already existing differentials of healthcare provision itself, such as between people of different sexes and gender, ethnicity,culture, ability and disability, and social class. Also, for many cultures, age difference can be a source of power differential.