Impact of communication skills training on parents perceptions of care: intervention study
- 18 October 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Advanced Nursing
- Vol. 67 (2), 394-400
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.05475.x
Abstract
This paper is a report of a study of the effects of communication-skills training for healthcare professionals on parents' perceptions of information, care and continuity. As training in communication skills has been more and more integrated into clinical practice it has been subject to an increasing number of studies. However, the majority of studies have been conducted in outpatient clinics, have only targeted physicians, and have not been evaluated from the perspective of patients. This intervention study, conducted from 2005 to 2007, was performed to investigate the effect of a 3-day communication course offered to all healthcare professionals in a department of paediatrics. In a pre-/post-test design, the effect of the intervention was evaluated by the parents using electronic questionnaires filled in on touch-screen computers located centrally in the wards. A total of 895 parents answered the questionnaires before the course (80%) and 1937 answered after the course (72%). For the questions on care and continuity, the proportion of satisfied parents increased statistically significantly for 4 out of 13 questions, e.g. Did you feel that the staff understood you situation? and Did you find that the information given by the different nurses was consistent? For the information questions, no statistically significant differences were found. It is possible to incorporate key communication skills into clinical practice by targeting all healthcare professionals. Communication skills training using interactive methods such as role-play and feedback on video recordings is recommended.Keywords
This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit:
- A communication intervention for nursing staff in chronic careJournal of Advanced Nursing, 2009
- The effect of training in communication skills on medical doctors’ and nurses’ self-efficacy: A randomized controlled trialPatient Education and Counseling, 2007
- Electronic questionnaires for measuring parent satisfaction and as a basis for quality improvementInternational Journal for Quality in Health Care, 2007
- Measuring patient-centered communication in Patient–Physician consultations: Theoretical and practical issuesSocial Science & Medicine, 2005
- Parents’ Priorities and Satisfaction With Acute Pediatric CareArchives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 2005
- Nonverbal Behavior and the Vertical Dimension of Social Relations: A Meta-Analysis.Psychological Bulletin, 2005
- Effect on Health-Related Outcomes of Interventions to Alter the Interaction Between Patients and Practitioners: A Systematic Review of TrialsAnnals of Family Medicine, 2004
- Impact of Education for Physicians on Patient OutcomesPEDIATRICS, 1998
- Meta-analysis of Correlates of Provider Behavior in Medical EncountersMedical Care, 1988
- Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change.Psychological Review, 1977