Outcome of Communicative Competence in a 2-day Communication Skills Training for Nursing and Midwifery Students - A Randomized Controlled Trial

Aims: To compare the outcome of empathy of a 2-day communication skills training (CST) in an intervention and a control group of nursing and midwifery students in a randomized controlled trial.

Study Design: A pre-test post-test design study in a randomized control trial was used.

Place and Duration of Study: Tamale Nursing and Midwifery College, Ghana. Baseline data was collected at the end of August 2014. Six-month follow-up took place in early March 2015.

Methodology: In all 230 participants were eligible. They were made up of nursing (n = 181) and midwifery (n = 49) students from Tamale Nurses and Midwives College in Tamale, Ghana. A sample of 210 (nursing 104 = and midwifery = 106) were randomized into an intervention and a control group. Both groups had a 2-day CST each at different times. Both groups had a baseline test (T1) at the same time. The intervention group had a CST, followed by post-test (T2) on day 3. The control group had post-test (T2) on day 4 just before their CST. The outcome was communicative competence measured with communicative competence questionnaire. Both groups had a follow-up test (T3) at the same time, six months after the CST. All data were analysed using SPSS.

Results: The results showed there was no statistically significant difference in the scores of communicative competence between the intervention and the control group [F(1, 171) = 1.53, P = .218].

Conclusion: In this study there was no evidence that communicative competence can be enhance following a 2-day communication skills training.