Differences between Nurses and Patients' Perception of Nurses' Communication Skills

Soonjoo Park

doi:10.7475/kjan.2017.29.2.166

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Park: Differences between Nurses and Patients' Perception of Nurses' Communication Skills

Original Article

Korean J Adult Nurs 2017;29(2):166-176.

Published online: 9 April 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7475/kjan.2017.29.2.166

Differences between Nurses and Patients' Perception of Nurses' Communication Skills

Soonjoo Park, Ph.D., RN

Assistant Professor, College of Nursing, Eulji University, Daejeon, Korea

Corresponding author: Park, Soonjoo College of Nursing, Eulji University, 77 Gyeryong-ro 771Beon-gil, Jung-gu, Daejeon 34824, Korea. Tel: +82-42-259-1720, Fax: +82-42-259-1709, E-mail: sagaciouspark@naver.com

Received 19 February 201714 April 2017 Accepted 25 April 2017

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The study aimed to assess differences between nurses' and patients' perception of the communication skills to promote patients' health literacy in a hospital.

Methods

The convenience sample consisted of 150 patients and 169 nurses in a university hospital. The data were collected from January to February 2014 using the Communication Skills Scale for Hospital nurses and patients. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Lin's concordance were used to analyze the data.

Results

There were significant differences (t=9.44, p<.001) between the perception of nurses (8.18±2.00) and patients (5.49±2.95) on the communication skills used by nurses. Most nurses (3.87±0.39) perceived that the communication skills were effective, but more patients (4.13±0.62) reported significantly higher scores (t=-4.34, p<.001).

Conclusion

The results im-plied that nurses need to make sure that their communication skills are effective when they communicate with patients, and education programs for nurses to develop the advanced communication skills would be necessary.

Keywords: Communication, Perception, Nurses, Patients

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Figure 1.

Scatter diagrams of use, experience, perceived effects of communication skills in nurses and patients.

Table 1.

Nurses' General Characteristics and Use of Communication Skills (N=169)

Characteristics	Categories	n(%)	Nurses' use	t or F	p
Characteristics	Categories	n(%)	(M± SD)	t or F	p
Gender	Male	0(0.0)
Gender	Female	169(100.0)
Age (year)	≤25	69(40.8)	8.29±1.93	0.17	.848
	26~30	52(30.8)	8.10±2.05
	＞30	48(28.4)	8.13±2.10
Education	3-year college	57(33.7)	8.37±2.01	1.00	.371
	4-year college	72(42.6)	7.93±1.94
	Graduate school	40(23.7)	8.38±2.12
Marital status	Single	134(79.3)	8.04±2.04	-1.77	.079
Marital status	Married	35(20.7)	8.71±1.79
Career (year)	≤3	54(31.9)	8.11±1.93	0.16	.849
	＞3~5	41(24.3)	8.10±2.12
	＞5	74(43.8)	8.28±2.02
Position	Staff nurse	142(84.0)	8.15±1.96	-0.42	.673
Position	Manager	27(16.0)	8.33±2.25
Awareness of health literacy	Familiar ^a	24(14.2)	9.21±2.26	4.43	.013
	Heard ^b	47(27.8)	8.28±1.90		a＞ c
	Never heard ^c	98(58.0)	7.89±1.92
Assessment of patients' health literacy	Always ^a	45(26.6)	8.89±1.77	3.98	.020
	Sometimes ^b	63(37.3)	7.98±2.00		a＞ c
	Never ^c	61(36.1)	7.87±2.07

Table 2.

Patients' General Characteristics and Experience of Communication Skills (N=150)

Characteristics	Categories	n(%)	Patients' experience	t or F or x²	p
Characteristics	Categories	n(%)	M± SD	t or F or x²	p
Gender	Male	80(53.3)	5.98±2.90	2.20	.030
Gender	Female	70(46.7)	4.93±2.92
Age (year)	20~29	26(17.3)	5.77±3.61	2.15	.077
	30~39	28(18.7)	5.11±2.23
	40~49	27(18.0)	4.78±3.06
	50~59	37(24.7)	6.57±2.78
	≥60	32(21.3)	4.94±2.77
Education	≤ Junior high school	36(24.0)	5.86±2.76	0.40	.668
	High school	61(40.7)	5.43±3.09
	≥ College	53(35.3)	5.30±2.93
Marital status	Single	33(22.0)	5.94±3.33	7.51	.023^†
	Married	100(66.7)	5.63±2.78
	Others	17(11.3)	3.76±2.66
Hospital stay	≤7 days	80(53.3)	5.73±3.06	1.06	.291
Hospital stay	＞7 days	70(46.7)	5.21±2.81
Number of hospitalization	1	37(24.7)	4.97±2.84	0.89	.411
	2	40(26.7)	5.45±2.72
	≥3	73(48.6)	5.77±3.12

^† Data were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis test followed by the Mann-Whitney U test using Bonferroni correction to adjust the probability.

Table 3.

Use, Experience, and Perceived Effects of Communication Skills in Nurses and Patients

Communication Skill		Nurses' use (n=169)	Patients' experience (n=150)	t	p	Nurses' perceived effect (n=169)	Patients' perceived effect (n=148)^†	t	p
		M± SD	M± SD	t	p	M± SD	M± SD	t	p
Total		8.18±2.00	5.49±2.95	9.44	＜.001	3.87±0.39	4.13±0.62	-4.34	＜.001
Interaction type	Underlining key points	0.91±0.29	0.43±0.50	10.32	＜.001	3.95±0.68	4.27±0.65	-3.19	.002
	Using teach-back	0.86±0.35	0.48±0.50	7.71	＜.001	3.94±0.57	4.17±0.77	-2.24	.027
	Using printed materials	0.73±0.44	0.39±0.49	6.47	＜.001	3.94±0.62	4.17±0.62	-2.32	.022
	Presenting two or three words and checking	0.67±0.47	0.61±0.49	1.26	.209	3.75±0.59	4.15±0.70	-4.44	＜.001
	Asking how to follow instructions	0.64±0.48	0.50±0.50	2.52	.012	3.77±0.62	4.15±0.65	-3.97	＜.001
Response type	Writing out instructions	0.91±0.29	0.39±0.49	11.52	＜.001	4.06±0.56	4.29±0.68	-2.36	.021
	Drawing pictures	0.34±0.48	0.15±0.35	4.21	＜.001	3.84±0.67	4.09±0.68	-1.46	.149
	Using models	0.24±0.43	0.19±0.39	1.22	.225	3.83±0.67	4.00±0.82	-0.95	.344
Transmission type	Using simple language	0.98±0.13	0.93±0.25	2.14	.033	3.82±0.52	4.19±0.66	-5.31	＜.001
	Speaking slowly	0.97±0.17	0.75±0.43	5.76	＜.001	3.91±0.51	4.18±0.71	-3.37	.001
	Reading aloud	0.93±0.26	0.67±0.47	5.91	＜.001	3.83±0.55	4.22±0.73	-4.61	＜.001

^† Patients who did not experience the communication skills were excluded.

Table 4.

Concordance of Use, Experience, Perceived Effects of Communication Skills in Nurses and Patients

Variables	r _c	95% CI	r	C _b
Nurses' use and patients' experience	.49	0.112~0.743	.77	.64
Nurses' and patients' perceived effects	.08	-0.021~0.170	.57	.13

r c=concordance correlation coefficient; CI=confidence interval; r=Pearson's correlation coefficient; C b=the measure of accuracy.

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