Evaluation of communication training programs in nursing care: a review of the literature

Abstract

An important aspect of nursing care is communication with patients. Nurses' major communication tasks are not only to inform the patient about his / her disease and treatment, but also to create a therapeutically effective relationship by assessing patients' concerns, showing understanding, empathy, and providing comfort and support. In this review, 14 studies, which focus on the evaluation of the effects of communication training programs for nurses, have been evaluated. The selected studies were screened on several independent, process and outcome variables as described by Francke et al. [8]. In this way not only is the training program taken into account as a variable which may be responsible for nurses' behavioural change and for changes in patient outcomes, but also a range of other variables which can give more nuanced explanations for a training program's degree of effectiveness. On the whole, the studies reviewed showed limited or no effects on nurses' skills, on nurses' behavioural changes in practice, and on patient outcomes. Finally, the majority of the studies had a weak design. The use of experimental research designs should be pursued in future studies in order to eliminate the influence of confounding variables.

Preparation for cancer care: Perceptions of newly qualified health care professionals

“…Whilst some studies indicate that communication skills can improve through education and training (Maguire et al, 1996;Razavi et al, 2000;Wilkinson et al, 2002), other studies suggest that the skills obtained from communication courses have not been applied within the clinical setting (Kruijver et al, 2000(Kruijver et al, , 2001. Nonetheless, the drive to improve the patient assessment using a standardised approach by all health professionals has placed assessment of patients' needs (and communication skills) as central to the whole process of providing quality cancer care (NICE, 2004;National Audit Office, 2005).…”

Communication between nurses and simulated patients with cancer: evaluation of a communication training programme

“…When reviewing the literature (Kruijver et al, 2000b) it appears that relatively few of these programmes have been evaluated and the majority of these studies utilize a non-randomized research design, which in general is weaker than a randomized design in evaluating the effect of a training intervention. Evaluation studies are useful in gaining insight into the effect of these programmes on nurses' levels of communication skills and other nurse and patient outcomes.…”

Kommunikasjonskurs med simulering

“…For å videreutvikle kommunikasjonsferdigheter kan simulering eller en tradisjonell fagdidaktisk tilnaerming benyttes, selv om mye tyder på at simulering er å foretrekke (18)(19)(20). Simulering for å laere kommunikasjon har resultert i økte ferdigheter hos studenter i grunnutdanning i sykepleie (21,22), hos helsepersonell ved onkologiske avdelinger (23) og hos sykepleiere ved psykiatriske avdelinger (24).…”

“…Ved den aktuelle avdelingen eksisterte det ikke spesifikke metoder for å kommunisere med den våkne og kommuniserbare pasienten eller med den våkne respiratorpasienten. Ettersom simulering er anbefalt fremfor tradisjonell laeringsform (19,23), utviklet vi et simuleringsbasert kurs med én dags varighet for å laere bekreftende kommunikasjonsferdigheter. Kurset besto av en teoretisk innføring i kommunikasjonsmodellen og scenarietrening i bruk av bekreftende ferdigheter.…”