Effects of the nurse-patient communication skills training on reducing pain in patients

One of the most common clinical symptoms is pain. Nurses as the key people who have the most communication with patients; pain assessment and control, comfort providing and discomfort preventing are their important responsibilities. This study aimed to determine the impact of the nurse-patient communication skills training on pain reducing of patients. Methods and Material: An experimental study was carried out by random selection of 30 nurses who have worked in the Medical and surgical ward of Ghaem and Imam Reza hospitals in Mashhad city. A two-day workshop based on Nurse-Patient communication training for 8hours was held for the nurses. The data collection tools were the demographic information, paying attention to communication and control of pain questionnaires which were filled out by the nurses and 3 patients per nurse before and 4 weeks after the intervention. The data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 and using analytical statistics.

The nurse–patient communication scores were 21/6± 5/95 pre-training and 35/7 ± 4/11 post- training; the attention to pain mean scores were 13/8± 0/35 pre-training and 19/5±2/57 post-training which there were different significantly (p<0.001) from the nurses perspective. The mean score of nurse's communication to patients were 21/3± 5/78 post- training and 35/9±4/09 post- training; the paying attention to pain mean score was 15/4± 3/76 pre-training and 27/2±3/01 post- training that there were different significantly as well (p<0.001).

Communication skills training and establishing nurse–patient communication reduces the patient's pain therefore, it's essential that nursing managers and nursing education administrators consider to the nurse's communication skills improvement.