Innovative approach to teaching communication skills to nursing students

Abstract

This study assessed the effectiveness of a learner-centered simulation intervention designed to improve the communication skills of preprofessional sophomore nursing students. An innovative teaching strategy in which communication skills are taught to nursing students by using trained actors who served as standardized family members in a clinical learning laboratory setting was evaluated using a two-group posttest design. In addition to current standard education, the intervention group received a formal training session presenting a framework for communication and a 60-minute practice session with the standardized family members. Four domains of communication-introduction, gathering of information, imparting information, and clarifying goals and expectations-were evaluated in the control and intervention groups in individual testing sessions with a standardized family member. The intervention group performed better than the control group in all four tested domains related to communication skills, and the difference was statistically significant in the domain of gathering information (p = 0.0257).