Previous work experience and age do not affect final semester nursing student self-efficacy in communication skills

With the continuing increase in the older population, being able to communicate with the elderly is one of the many important skills in caring for older people. Therefore, student nurses need support during education to be prepared with the necessary communication skills to meet these demands.

The aim of this study was to describe the development of communication skills during nursing education.

A quantitative descriptive and comparative study.

The nursing programme at a university in an urban area of Sweden.

Student nurses in the first and third year in a nursing programme in Sweden in 2015.

Data were collected with a self-efficacy questionnaire and analysed with descriptive and comparative statistics.

The student nurses in the final semester had a higher self-rated ability to communicate with older people than students in the second semester of the education year. There was also a difference in self efficacy between students with or without former experience of health care work or work in care with older persons in the second semester. However, these differences were not seen in the final semester. The age of the students did not affect the self-efficacy rate in either semester.

Student nurses in the present study scored themselves relatively highly, while student nurses in previous studies expressed a need for more communication skills training. Further studies with observations of student nurses' actual communicative skills in clinical and simulations settings are needed, to pinpoint weak spots and targets for such an education.