Nurses' communication skills in military hospitals

Background and Purpose: Communication has become a core topic in nursing care and investigations on this topic could have a
significant impact on increasing nursing quality services. The present study aims to evaluate the communication skills and nursing
staff component focusing on emotional management, others' perception and self-expression.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study to determine the communication skills of military nursing staffs in
Tehran, elected in 2013. 340 staff nurses working at internal medicine, surgery, intensive care unit (ICU) and emergency were
enrolled. Data were gathered using a designed questionnaire and by using SPSS 18 and Chi-square analysis. Validity and reliability
testing using alpha- Cronbach has been obtained 0.66.
Results: 52.1% of the participants were women. The mean age was 35.29 (±7.5) and the mean score of communication skill was
116.14 (±9.43). Between communication skills & the variables of age, education, nursing responsibilities, there was a significant
correlation (P<0.05). The relationship between communication skill and components (emotional management, others' perception, self
expression) was positive and significant (p<0.001).
Conclusion: The communication score in this study was average. Therefore, in order to promote efficiency and improve care
quality, encouraging the employees to utilize these skills and monitoring this execution and also developing short term courses
with the subjects as emotional management, others’ perception, and self-expression, in the communicative skills are
recommended.