Gate keeping and legitimisation were central in the interactions between informal carers of older people and healthcare workers

Expert and experienced nurses seek information about patients from a number of sources in order to “know” their patients; information about patient particulars helps nurses to individualise care under various circumstances.1 2 Moreover, patients seek information from nurses and others in order to become more equal partners in care.3 The study by May et al alerts us to how information may be exchanged between healthcare workers and informal carers, and encourages insights about these interactions. The videotaping method provided data on not only what was said, but also the language patterns and non-verbal behaviours of the participants. Analysis revealed that cautiousness, politeness, and deference characterised interactions. Although these findings cannot be generalised, nurses might consider their interactions with carers in public places, attending to how nurses might be perceived as gatekeepers and how nurses’ verbal and non-verbal communications may affect what is learned about patients. Sensitivity to the stance of carers as they solicit information may ease the exchange, helping carers become better informed so that they might participate more fully in decision making. Sensitivity to possible carer gate keeping could help nurses learn the “special knowledge” that informal carers have about patients, thereby facilitating the individualisation of interventions. These findings encourage further examination of informal carer and healthcare worker interactions to uncover possible ethical issues regarding communication, to determine how nurses legitimise the participation of informal carers, and to uncover possible power differences between the 2 groups. Combined methodologies — videotaping, participant observation, and interviewing — would shed light on participants’ perceptions of how they were treated during interactions, and their perceptions of the outcomes of interactions. Also, categorising interactions by type of healthcare workers (eg, nurses, therapists, and housekeepers) would help specify implications for nursing practice and for ward management.