Communication skills and its related factors in Ardabil Alavi Hospital nurses and staff

ABSTRACT

Background: Communication skills (CS) is an important topic which help the nurses and staff to maintain effective relationships and have professional standards in all legal, ethical and clinical areas. So low level of CS between nurses could be led to more medical mistakes and reduce the patient’s quality of care. The aim of this study was to determine the level of CS among Ardabil teaching hospitals nurses and staff and its related factors.Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 145 Ardabil Alavi hospitals’ nurses and staff from May 2019 to November 2019. The data collection tool was communication skills questionnaire of Burton G (1990) which included demographic data and interpersonal communication skills test (18 items) with a range of 18-90. Data analyzed in SPSS version 21 by using descriptive and analytical statistics tests such as; Spearman, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskal Wallis at significant level of p<0.05.Results: Of all students, 72.4% were women and the rest were men. The average age of participants, was 36.9±8.4 years. The mean score of total communication skills was calculated 59.2±7.3. The mean score of verbal skill, listening skill, and feedback skill were calculated in order to 20.8±3.43, 17.6±4, and 20.7±3.2, respectively. Total Communication skills was significantly related with past work experience but other demographic variables hadn’t significant relation with CS.Conclusions: The results indicated that the CS of Ardabil hospital nurses and staff were in moderate levels. So, providing training programs for raising their CS in future is essential.