The Effect of Communication Skills Training on Nurses' Confidence and Competence in Providing Psychosocial Support to Patients and Families

Background: Many bone marrow transplant (BMT) patients and families report clinically significant levels of psychological distress prior to the start of treatment and afterward. Nurses generally feel confident in providing care for the physical needs of patients, but often find it more difficult to address patients’ emotional concerns and report a lack of skill in this area. Supportive and patient-centered communication is an important part of nursing practice, especially with patients who are experiencing emotional and psychological distress, and disruption to social, occupational, and physical lifestyle. To address this issue, the clinical question, “Among direct care nurses, does communication skills training compared to no communication skills training, affect nurses’ confidence and competence in providing psychosocial support to patients and families?” was developed. The ACE Star Model of Evidence-Based Practice Change: Knowledge Transformation (Stevens, 2012) was used for this project. A literature search was conducted. Eight articles were critically appraised and a moderate grade was assigned. Communication skills training has been shown to be effective at increasing nurses’ ability to provide psychosocial support to patients, confidence in providing psychosocial support, confidence in handling conflicts and criticism, competency in communicating, and communication-related self-efficacy. Nurses also attended to the psychological and social needs of patients more effectively and reported that the skills translated well into the workplace.

Implementation: Communication skills training will be added to the Therapeutic Collaborative training for BMT nurses in the spring of 2014. This training aims to assist nurses in forming therapeutic relationships with their patients and families, addressing professional boundaries, the “zone of helpfulness”, and personality style and how it relates to communication. The training will be offered utilizing a combination of education strategies including web-based video and return demonstration with clinical managers.

Evaluation: The training will be evaluated using pre and post measures of BMT nurses’ confidence and confidence in providing psychosocial support to patients and families. Data will be collected at baseline and at three and six months post communication skills training.