Efficacy of Teaching Program about Efficient Patient Communication Using Role-play Strategy on Technical Nursing Students’ Practice

Background: Technical nursing students’ courses contents not give opportunity to apply nursing theory and skills of effective communication with patient in practice area lead to nursing students required improving their communication competencies through using role-play strategy. They need information for developing the idea by the sender, transmission of message and decoding, and providing feedback. Role play is a teaching method could be used for experiential learning and that provides an imaginary context in which issues and behaviors may be explored by students. Objective: Aim of the study was to determine efficacy of teaching program about efficient patient communication using role-play strategy on technical nursing student’s practice. Setting: Study was conducted at Tanta Health Technical Institute General Nursing Division and students’ training areas at El Minshawi Hospital affiliated to Ministry of Health at El-Gharbiya Governorate. Subject: The study subjects included all (n=65) second academic year technical nursing students at 2017-2018. Tool: Three tools was used, the effective patient communication and role-play teaching strategy knowledge test, technical nursing students’ actual performance of patient communication process observational checklist, and technical nursing students’ perception about role- play teaching strategy. Result: Pre-program 86.2% of technical nursing students were at poor level of total knowledge changed to be 1.5% post program. Pre-program 89.2% of them had unsatisfactory level of total performance changed to be 93.8% at good total performance level post program and the rest were at satisfactory level. Technical nursing students 93.8% showed high level of overall perception about role-play teaching strategy. Highly significant correlation detected between knowledge and practice of technical nursing students pre and post program. Conclusion: Absent of applying theoretical part of nursing administration course results in lacking of effective patient communication among technical nursing students. Proper implementation of teaching program about efficient patient communication using role-play strategy improved technical nursing student’s communication knowledge and practical skills significantly than pre educational program. Technical nursing students’ perception about using role-play teaching strategy patient communication program showed high level. Recommendation: Attention to educate course of effective patient communication at first and second year of technical nursing student’s curriculum. Attention to supervise technical nursing students training on patient communication skill at clinical practice areas. Internship training programs should include active, practice-oriented strategies about patient communication for nursing interns.