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Can intensive three‐day programmes improve nurses' communication skills in cancer care?
Author(s) -
Wilkinson S. M.,
Leliopoulou C.,
Gambles M.,
Roberts A.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
psycho‐oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.41
H-Index - 137
eISSN - 1099-1611
pISSN - 1057-9249
DOI - 10.1002/pon.698
Subject(s) - communication skills , communication skills training , health professionals , medicine , palliative care , nursing , health care , psychology , medical education , family medicine , economics , economic growth
Effective communication is widely regarded as a crucial component of patient care that can determine patient satisfaction, compliance and recovery. The plethora of communication skills training programmes available to health professionals is also a testament to the importance of this element of care. However a review of studies evaluating the effectiveness of such training programmes concluded that little behavioural change in health professionals' communication skills was evident. This paper reports the findings of a programme offered to cancer/palliative care nurses ( n =108) via eight condensed three‐day workshops at various UK venues. Behavioural change was assessed through evaluation of audiotaped nursing assessments made pre‐ and six weeks post‐course, scored along nine previously identified key communication areas. Mean overall scores rose by 6 points ( p <0.001) to 20 (out of 27) with statistically significant improvements on eight of the nine individual areas. Improvements in subjective levels of confidence in the areas of communication found difficult pre‐course were observed immediately post‐course ( p <0.001) and were still evident six weeks later. Similar improvements immediately post‐course for teaching communication skills to colleagues ( p <0.001) were further improved six weeks post‐course for seven of the eight areas assessed. These results suggest that three‐day training courses can lead to clinically relevant behavioural change and improvements in perceived confidence in communication and dissemination of skills. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.