On knowing what you do (not) know

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare
• Professional Development

Background:

• Overseas educated nurses (OENs) face challenges to their professional identity due to communication barriers in host countries.
• Limited communicative competence can lead to communication problems, impacting OENs' integration and practice.
• Self-perceived competence is crucial for OENs, alongside formal training, to address these challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of an English-language training program on the self-perceived communicative competence of OENs in the UK.
• To examine the effects of training on both actual and self-perceived competence in Task Focus (TF) and Rapport Building (RB).
• To investigate the correlation between actual and perceived competence before and after the training intervention.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative analysis using pre- and post-training questionnaire and test data.
• Involved 68 overseas educated nurses (OENs) in the United Kingdom.
• Assessed communicative competence in Task Focus (TF) and Rapport Building (RB) skills.

Main Results:

• A significant increase in OENs' self-perceived communicative competence was observed post-training.
• Actual Task Focus (ATF) and Perceived Task Focus (PTF) competence correlated both before and after training.
• Actual Rapport Building (ARB) and Perceived Rapport Building (PRB) competence correlated only after training, suggesting improved self-awareness.

Conclusions:

• The English-language training program positively impacted OENs' self-perceived communicative competence.
• Training helped OENs develop more accurate perceptions of their Rapport Building (RB) skills.
• The findings have implications for enhancing the accommodative competence of overseas educated nurses.