Developing and Testing the Validity of a Needs-Based Communication Program for New Korean Nurses' Organizational...

We developed a needs-based communication program for fostering the organizational adaptation of new Korean nurses. It tested the program's effects on their intentions to stay in their job, burnout, fear of negative evaluations, self-encouragement, workplace friendships, communication, and nonviolent communication.

The communication program was developed based on the nonviolent communication approach. Its effectiveness was tested using a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The participants were Korean nurses with less than six months of experience working in general hospitals located in Busan City and Gyeongsangnam-do Province, Republic of Korea. The experimental group, comprising 49 participants, underwent the needs-based communication program consisting of daily workshops and weekly practice sessions for eight weeks. The control group, comprising 44 participants, received no treatment. The data were collected from May to July, 2025, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, χ² test, t-test, analysis of covariance, ranked analysis of covariance, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Fisher's exact test, and McNemar's test.

Compared to the control group, the experimental group showed significantly improved intentions to stay in the job, self-encouragement, workplace friendships, communication, and nonviolent communication (P<0.05). However, burnout and fear of negative evaluations did not differ between the two groups (P>0.05).

The needs-based communication program can be applied to new nurses' introductory training curricula and is expected to enhance their adaptation to clinical practice.