Gender Comparison of Communication Skills of Nursing Students: Video Analysis of Standardized Patient Interview

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in communication skills of nursing students. The subjects of this study were 99 nursing students in a university. Data were collected by recording the interview process conducted by nursing students with the standardized patients and transcripts were made from the recorded video. To evaluate student’s communication skills, researchers analyzed video and transcripts objectively. Female students scored significantly higher than male students in listening skills (p=.002). Among the items assessing poor interview attitudes, too much focus on writing records (61%) was the most frequent. Therefore, the findings suggest an importance to find ways to improve the listening skills among the communication skills under the situation in increasing number of male nursing students.