Evaluation of Nursing Students’ Communication Abilities in Clinical Courses in Hospitals

Abstract

Background:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has established, improving communication as a priority for improving patient safety since 2006. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate nursing students’ communication abilities to recognize their strengths and weaknesses in communication skills.Method:This cross-sectional study was carried out in 2014. The study participants included all the nursing students who passed two semesters in Fatemeh School of Nursing and Midwifery in Shiraz, Iran. The students’ communication skills were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire. Then, the data were entered into the SPSS statistical software (v. 16) and analyzed using both descriptive (mean and percentage) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation and ANOVA).Results:Among the 200 students who completed the questionnaires, 58% were female and 42% were male with the mean age of 21.79 years (SD=2.14). The results of Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated a significant correlation between the nursing students’ clinical communication behavior scores and treatment communication ability scores (P<0.001). The findings demonstrated that most nursing students required improvement in their communication skills in both clinical communication behavior and treatment communication ability. Besides, a significant difference was observed among the students of different terms regarding clinical communication behaviors (P≤0.05), but not concerning communication abilities. Nursing students in higher semesters had better communication skills.Conclusions:The results showed that nursing students in this university had a moderate ability in clinical and treatment communication. Thus, paying attention to standard education, curriculum revision, and adding some specific theoretical lessons for improving communication skills are mandatory during the bachelor’s degree.

Effect of Training on the Attitude and Knowledge of Teamwork Among Anesthesia and Operating Room Nursing Students: A Quasi-Experimental Study

“…Its score was the highest compared with those of the other domains after intervention in the experimental group. According to the significant role of communication in promoting patient safety (9), training methods of the current study can be applied to improve students' communicative skills.…”

“…The results of a study showed that nursing students needed to improve their communication skills (9). Various efforts are made to acquaint the medical society with teamwork concept and skills as the leading technique to improve the quality of healthcare services among healthcare professionals (10).…”

Knowledge, attitude and practice regarding therapeutic communication among nurses in Kandy District, Sri Lanka

“…Our results showed that there was a statistically significant association between socio demographic statuses and knowledge of therapeutic communication. A study in Western Ethiopia reported that there was no statistically significant association between socio-demographic variables and knowledge of therapeutic communication (Thanasekaran et al, 2017 (Shafakhah et al, 2015).…”

“…Touch is considered as one of the most powerful form of therapeutic communication and can be explained as bringing the sense of caring by holding a patient's hand, using silence allowing the patient to think & gain some insight into the situation. (Sherko et al2013).Communication skills support in providing information & feedback, giving hope to patient and helping them to cope with anxiety during hospitalization (Shafakhah et al,2015). Nurses could provide a higher patient satisfaction, better health outcomes, quality of treatment care & more active self -management in patients with chronic diseases when they apply therapeutic communication for their patients (Ferreira et al,2016).…”

“…Nurses could provide a higher patient satisfaction, better health outcomes, quality of treatment care & more active self -management in patients with chronic diseases when they apply therapeutic communication for their patients (Ferreira et al,2016). On the other hand, ineffective communication could result in stress , errors in diagnosis, decrease of patient participation in care plan & information exchange and poor quality of treatment outcome (Shafakhah et al,2015).…”