LAUSR

BACKGROUND Nursing students experience notable challenges when communicating with patients, caregivers, and health-care providers during clinical training; this adds to the stress they experience from clinical training and deteriorates their clinical competence. OBJECTIVES The aims of this study are to develop and assess a practical program for improving communication skills, clinical practice stress, and clinical competence among nursing students undergoing clinical training. This is performed by administering and evaluating the respective effects of an assertiveness-training program; a program based on the situation, background, assessment, and recommendation (SBAR) technique and a program that combines assertiveness training with the SBAR technique. DESIGN This study used a non-equivalent, quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design. SETTINGS This study was conducted at the nursing schools of two universities in the north and west of South Korea. PARTICIPANTS Ninety-three third-year nursing students were recruited through convenience sampling from two universities in South Korea. METHODS The participants were randomly allocated to a group that received assertiveness training only, a group that received the SBAR technique only, or a group that received a combination of assertiveness training and the SBAR technique. Each program featured four sessions of 60-70 min each. Communication competence, communication clarity, assertive behavior, clinical training stress, and clinical competence were measured. RESULTS The group that received the combination of assertiveness training and the SBAR technique showed a significant improvement in communication clarity, a significant reduction in clinical training stress compared to both of the other groups, and improved clinical competence when compared to the group that received the SBAR technique only. CONCLUSIONS A program that combines the SBAR technique with assertiveness training can be utilized to improve communication skills, reduce clinical training stress, and enhance clinical competence in nursing students.