Can intensive three-day programmes improve nurses' communication skills in cancer care?

Wilkinson, S. M., Leliopoulou, Chrysi ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3938-3056, Gambles, M. and Roberts, A. (2003) Can intensive three-day programmes improve nurses' communication skills in cancer care? Psycho-Oncology, 12 (8) . pp. 747-759. ISSN 1057-9249 [Article] (doi:10.1002/pon.698)

Abstract

Effective communication is widely regarded as a crucial component of patient care that can determine patient satisfaction, compliance and recovery. The plethora of communication skills training programmes available to health professionals is also a testament to the importance of this element of care. However a review of studies evaluating the effectiveness of such training programmes concluded that little behavioural change in health professionals' communication skills was evident. This paper reports the findings of a programme offered to cancer/palliative care nurses (n=108) via eight condensed three-day workshops at various UK venues. Behavioural change was assessed through evaluation of audiotaped nursing assessments made pre- and six weeks post-course, scored along nine previously identified key communication areas. Mean overall scores rose by 6 points ( p<0.001) to 20 (out of 27) with statistically significant improvements on eight of the nine individual areas. Improvements in subjective levels of confidence in the areas of communication found difficult pre-course were observed immediately post-course ( p<0.001) and were still evident six weeks later. Similar improvements immediately post-course for teaching communication skills to colleagues ( p<0.001) were further improved six weeks post-course for seven of the eight areas assessed. These results suggest that three-day training courses can lead to clinically relevant behavioural change and improvements in perceived confidence in communication and dissemination of skills.

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