Preliminary Study On The Ability Of Nurse-patient Communication In Nursing Undergraduates: Structure Analysis And Measuring Instrument

In the 21st century, with the transform of medical model, the permeation of quality education as well as the implement of higher nursing education reform, the ability of nurse-patient communication has become one of the essential core competencies for nursing undergraduates. Many nursing academies have also taken the culture of the ability of nurse-patient communication as their important objective in teaching innovation. However, there wasn't any accepted measuring instrument for the ability of nurse-patient communication so far, and therefore, there is no reliable criterion of educational comparison and evaluation. Considering all the above reasons, a systematic research was made on the concept, composition and measuring instrument of the ability of nurse-patient communication in order to develop a scientific criterion for teaching evaluation and improve nursing education gradually. Our study subject was divided into the following four parts:Part one: Theory-based study on the concept and structure of the ability of nurse-patient communication in nursing undergraduates. Through the concepts of communication, interpersonal communication, nurse-patient communication and therapeutic communication, the nurse-patient communication on the theory-based analysis were defined and then the elements and their connotation of the ability of nurse-patient communication were proposed preliminarily by the document-based study and logical analysis.Part two: Establishing the structural elements and measuring method of the ability of nurse-patient communication in nursing undergraduates. In order to amend and establish the structural elements of the ability of nurse-patient communication, Delphi method was applied to consulting the items, connotation and weights of the elements, and at last, the following four elements for the ability of nurse-patientcommunication were established: the abilities of basic language communication, basic non-language communication, applying communication skills and coordinating communication network. Furthermore, the present method in evaluating the ability of nurse-patient communication either from foreign or domestic were analyzed by theory-based analysis, the four elements were determined as the criterion of measuring the ability of nurse-patient communication in nursing undergraduates with the form of three kinds of items: self-report items, clinical simulating scenarios items and open questions.Part three: The developing of the measuring instrument for the ability of nurse-patient communication in nursing graduates. After the establishment of the measuring method, according to the general principles and methods of educational as well as psychological measurement, the holistic plan for measuring instrument was performed and every measuring target of the ability of nurse-patient communication was analyzed seriously. The test scale was compiled. And then with clinical validating, expert consultation, trial testing and item analysis, the scale was developed finally. The statistical analysis showed that the scale had good reliability and validity.Part four: Analysis and countermeasures of the current status of the ability of nurse-patient communication in nursing undergraduates. In order to know about the current status of the ability of nurse-patient communication in nursing undergraduates and find out the problems in nursing teaching, the self-made scale was applied to testing the nursing undergraduates during clinical practice, and aimed at the problems reflected from the tests, some countermeasures were put forward.