Innovative approach to teaching communication skills to nursing students

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Healthcare Simulation
• Communication Skills Training

Background:

• Effective communication is crucial for nursing practice.
• Traditional nursing education may not adequately prepare students for complex communication scenarios.
• Simulation offers a safe environment to practice communication skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a learner-centered simulation intervention for improving preprofessional sophomore nursing students' communication skills.
• To compare the communication performance of students receiving the intervention versus standard education.
• To identify specific communication domains impacted by the simulation.

Main Methods:

• A two-group posttest design was employed.
• The intervention group received standard education plus a communication framework training and a 60-minute simulation with trained actors as standardized family members.
• Communication skills were assessed in four domains: introduction, information gathering, information imparting, and goal clarification.

Main Results:

• The intervention group demonstrated superior performance in all four communication domains compared to the control group.
• A statistically significant improvement was observed in the 'gathering information' domain (p = 0.0257).
• The simulation intervention positively impacted overall communication effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• Learner-centered simulation is an effective strategy for enhancing nursing students' communication skills.
• Simulation-based training, particularly with standardized patients, can significantly improve critical communication competencies like information gathering.
• This innovative teaching method prepares nursing students for real-world patient interactions.