Evaluation of effective communication skills of nurses working in the COVİD-19 process

The research was conducted in a descriptive-sectional style to evaluate the effective communication skills of nurses working in the COVID-19 process and to determine the affecting factors. The research was completed with 398 nurses working at Kahramanmaraş Necip Fazıl City Hospital and Kahramanmaraş Pazarcık District State Hospital, who agreed to participate in the research. The research was conducted in a descriptive-sectional style to evaluate the effective communication skills of nurses working in the COVID-19 process and to determine the affecting factors. The Research data was obtained by using the "Personal Information Form" and "Effective Communication Skills Scale", which were created by the researcher through a literature review. The Effective Communication Skills Scale is not evaluated over the total score but is evaluated according to the scores obtained from the sub-dimensions. Whether the data were suitable for normal distribution was evaluated with the Fisher skewness-kurtosis value. Kruskal-Wallis, Mann Whitney U tests, and Pearson correlation analysis, which are nonparametric tests, were used to compare the scale averages and some data. Cronbach Alpha test was used for scale reliability. The data were considered significant with a margin of error of 0.05 at the 95% confidence interval. Statistical evaluation of the data was done with SPSS 24.0 package program. The effective communication skills of the nurses who participated in the study (EİBÖ), "Ego Enhancing Language" sub-dimension mean score was 23.62±3.49 and above the medium level. "Active Listening" sub-dimension mean score is 33.92±4.58 and high. "Self-Knowledge/Disclosure" sub-dimension mean score is 18.55±3.56 and above the medium level. The mean score of the Self-Knowledge/Disclosure sub-dimension is 18.55±3.56, which is above the medium level. "Empathy" sub-dimension mean score was 31.23±4.62 and high. The mean scores of using the "I Language" sub-dimension are 22.12±4.38 and above the medium level. To be evaluated in general, the effective communication skills of the nurses participating in the study were found to be at a high level during the COVID-19 process. Based on this result, it was recommended to give the necessary importance to communication courses in in-service training programs and university curriculum to keep nurse's effective communication skills up-to-date and further develop them.