Effects of Nonverbal Communications between Health Service Providers and Patients in Health Care Facilities in Indonesia

This research analyzes the significance of each non-verbal communication variable consisting of artifact, haptic, kinesics, chronemics, proxemics, and vocalic to satisfy patients with different demography classifications based on age, gender, ward type, ethnicity, education, and occupation. Therapeutic communication between nurses and patients has been widely studied and well-documented. On the contrary, therapeutic communication between physician and patient has not been thoroughly explored while it is very important in health services to achieve optimal health stages. Previous studies show that effective nonverbal communication in therapeutic communication plays an important role in influencing the optimal level of patient healthiness through patient satisfaction due to the asymmetry of information between physicians and patients. However, which variables of nonverbal communication are suitable to meet the needs of different demographic characteristics is still poorly understood. The result shows that demography characteristics matter in explaining the influence of nonverbal communication variables on patients’ satisfaction. Understanding the way the demographer thinks and perceives would be useful in designing a nonverbal communication style to encourage positive feelings and emotions of patients that subsequently lead to optimum health treatment.