The Relationship Between Nursing Students’ Therapeutic Communication Skills and Their Perceptions Concerning Care Behaviors

Background: In the nursing profession, communication skills and care are defined as two complementary concepts. Communication skills are essential for providing spiritual care, managing symptoms effectively, offering psychosocial support, and facilitating advanced care planning.

Aim: This research aimed to determine the relationship between nursing students’ therapeutic communication skills and their perceptions concerning care behaviors.

Methods: Conducted as a descriptive study, it included second-, third-, and fourth-year students from a university’s nursing department (N=315), with 278 students meeting the inclusion criteria and forming the study sample. Data were collected using an information form, the Therapeutic Communication Skills Scale (TCSS), and the Care Assessment Scale (CAS) between December 2022 and January 2023. Descriptive methods, the independent t-test to compare the scale scores of two independent groups, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to compare more than two independent groups were employed in the data analysis.

Results: The study found that 34.2% of the participants were third-year students, 33.5% were 20 years old or younger, 77.7% were female, and 97.1% were single. The average TCSS score of the nursing students in this study was 66.45±11.59, while the mean CAS score was 279.38 ± 36.59. There was a significant and positive correlation between nursing students’ caring assessment scores and their therapeutic communication skills (r=0.349; P < 0.05). Their communication skills and caring assessment scores also increased with age.

Conclusion: Nursing students demonstrated moderate therapeutic communication skills and a positive approach towards the application and perception of caring behaviors.