Table 1

Comparison of telenurses’ communication in the group cases versus control, presented as percentage of total utterances

Nurse talk	Case n=26	Control n=26	p Value*
Composite category/category	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)	p Value*
Data gathering—biomedical	17.5 (10.2)	24.7 (10.6)	0.032
a) Closed—medical question	9.5 (5.5)	12.8 (7.8)	0.112
b) Closed—therapeutic question	2.3 (3.0)	0.9 (1.9)	0.058
c) Closed—other question	2.3 (2.5)	0.5 (0.3)	0.001
d) Open—medical question	2.6 (3.0)	9.6 (4.5)	0.001
e) Open—therapeutic question	0.2 (0.6)	0.9 (1.3)	0.013
f) Open—other question	0.2 (0.6)	0.4 (0.7)	0.575
g) Bid for repetition	0.3 (0.7)	0.1 (0.5)	0.225
Facilitation and patient activation	25.8 (11.7)	35.3 (11.4)	0.003
a) Ask for opinion	1.1 (1.5)	0.3 (0.7)	0.034
b) Ask for permission	0.3 (0.8)	0.08 (0.04)	0.225
c) Ask for reassurance	0	0	1.0
d) Ask for callers understanding	0.4 (1.7)	0.3 (0.8)	0.575
e) Back-channel	15.9 (10.1)	28.8 (11.3)	0.001
f) Check own understanding	8.1 (5.1)	1.9 (2.6)	0.001
Rapport-building/positive	16.5 (7.8)	14.7 (8.6)	0.341
a) Laugh	0.1 (0.5)	1.1 (3.6)	0.116
b) Express Approval	0.7 (1.1)	0.5 (1.1)	0.470
c) Give Compliments	0	0	1.0
d) Agree	15.6 (7.6)	2.4 (3.9)	0.001
Rapport-building/positive	6.0 (6.1)	2.9 (3.3)	0.024
a) Express empathy	0.5 (0.9)	0.8 (1.3)	0.433
b) Legitimise	0.6 (1.4)	0.2 (0.6)	0.161
c) Express concern	0.3 (0.8)	0.9 (1.2)	0.030
d) Reassures	4.3 (5.7)	1.0 (2.2)	0.010
e) Make partnership statement	0.3 (0.8)	0	0.109
f) Self-disclosure	0.02 (0.1)	0	0.317

*The Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to compare the groups. All categories in the RIAS were compared; however, in the table only composite categories including statistically significant results (p≤0.001) and composite categories with a tendency toward significance (p=0.01) are presented. Statistically significant values are marked with bold text.