The purpose of this study was to attempt to observe and quantify some of the effects of an experiential interpersonal communication training program on the individuals involved. The program studied was Speech 360, a laboratory communication course offered at North Texas State University. The design of the study involved three basic student groups -- a.) the fall 1970 Speech 360 students; b.) the Spring 1971 Speech 360 students; and c.) a control group of students similar to those in the course, but who were not involved in the training program.

This thesis focuses on Catholic Charities (Hereafter CC), a non-profit agency that provides pregnancy and adoption support to families in times of crisis. Research and agency data reflect a positive association between the amount of time clients engage in services and the resolution of crises. Both theoretically and empirically, a key determinant of the depth and breadth of clients' engagement with both for-profit and non-profit services is their satisfaction with such services. In 2009-2010, CC's in-house, client surveys reported a decreasing level of client engagement with services. One clear trend was that clients discontinued services after thirty days or less. Against this trend, CC aims to provide social services for an extended period of time (i.e. longer than thirty days) in order to insure that clients have fully recovered from crises. In order to understand possible reasons for clients' low or short engagement rates, this thesis analyzes clients' satisfaction with CC services. Using a grounded-theory approach, twenty semi-structured interviews with former and current CC clients were analyzed for communication-based themes involving clients' satisfaction with services. Four macro-themes emerged: (1) Positive Caseworker Personality, (2) Feeling Emotionally Supported, (3) Feeling Helped, and (4) Positive Counseling Environment. Findings have implications for both theories of satisfaction and the offering and practice of CC services.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Nurse-physician collaboration has received much attention over the past decade in the USA. The release of three reports from the Institute of Medicine implicated poor communication and collaboration among nurses and physicians as a major contributing factor to the incidence of sentinel events and medical errors. Despite the growing awareness of the imperative related to collaboration between nurses and physicians to ensure patient safety, the problem of poor nurse-physician collaboration remains endemic throughout the country. Indian nurses, along with many other internationally educated nurses, comprise 12-15.2% of the nursing workforce in the USA. Little is known about how Indian nurses culture potentially influences their ability to effectively collaborate with physicians to ensure patient safety. The purpose of this study is to understand Indian nurses’ attitudes and perceptions about nurse-physician collaboration. Hermeneutic interpretive phenomenology as influenced by the work of Martin Heidegger guided this study through the use of interviews via Skype. The overall experience of the Indian nurses was of one experiencing a dramatic positive change in nurse-physician collaboration in the USA as compared to India. Four themes emerged describing this phenomenon: Respect/feeling heard, Being Trusted, Assurance of Accountability, and Finding Freedom. Indian nurses practicing in the USA find a freedom that empowers them to collaborate with physicians for patient safety. They, as all nurses may, benefit from continuing educational opportunities that demonstrate ways to collaborate more fully.