Attitudes towards communication skills among nursing students and its association with sense of coherence

Abstract The aim of the study is to examine the relationships between attitudes towards communication skills, self-evaluation of communication abilities, and sense of coherence among students of nursing. A cross-sectional correlational study design was employed. Altogether, 227 university nursing students participated in the study (20.53 ± 2.04; 96.9% females). Communication Skills Attitudes Scale (CSAS), Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC), and short self-evaluation scale of communication ability of own design were used. The results showed a high average score in the positive attitudes subscale and moderate negative attitudinal scores in the CSAS questionnaire, as well as positive self-evaluation of the communication abilities among students. The positive subscale of the CSAS was positively related to the sense of coherence ( p  = 0.05), while the negative subscale of the CSAS was negatively related to the sense of coherence ( p  ≤ 0.001). The study showed that sense of coherence is associated with more positive attitudes towards communication skills. Understanding the factors associated with the effective communication strategies provides an important base for improving the content of the current communication curriculum in nursing study programs.