Clinical Skills and Communication in Nursing Students

Communication is a basic tool in nursing, a crucial element in health care. The quality of the interactions that take place between the nurse and the user/family influences their satisfaction and the security they feel regarding the quality of the care they get from the institution. We tried to identify the communication skills and interpersonal relationships nursing students have with their patients; to identify the socio-demographic and academic variables that may influence nursing students’ communication skills and interpersonal relationships. As a methodology we applied, Quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive and correlational study. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire which included questions concerning: the students’ socio-demographic and academic characterization, the basic skills which will make interviews and clinical communications easier in health care; the usefulness of those clinical communication skills and possible ranges of communication skills and interpersonal relationships. 374 nursing students from two Portuguese schools formed the sample. The majority of the participants in the survey were female (80.5%) aged 18 to 21. The students seemed to understand and accept the importance of clinical communication skills and interpersonal relationships in nursing practice (82.4%); they agreed with the way the methods of communicational skills were taught (54.3%). In their opinion the training they got in this area was good (71.7%). The participants’ age, the semester during which the study was conducted and the school they were attending influenced students’ communication skills and interpersonal relationships (p <0.5). The results obtained allow us to conclude that the education / training nursing students get in the field of relational contexts and the way they can develop their communication skills is of paramount importance when it comes to empower them with the capacity to become a competent health care professional. © 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk