[Study of Social Skills or Assertive Behaviour in the Students of the Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería of Huesca (Spain)].

Abstract

Objective: To know the level and characteristics of social skills (SS) in nursing students from the Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería of Huesca (EUEH) during undergraduate training and its relationship with personal, educational and employment variables.

Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 126 students enrolled in the course 2012-2013. As an evaluation instrument the Social Skills Scale of Gismero [1] was used.

Results: The overall level of SS is 96.15 (SD = 12.06), which is in the 75th percentile of the sample scales of the Social Skills Scale. The Students of the second course are significantly more skilled (< 0.005) in dimension "defend their rights" (DII), with a score of 15.17 (SD = 1.95). In the students under 21 years, are significant differences <0.033) for the dimension "express requests' (DV) with result of 14.82 (SD = 2.73). Students without prior experience, with health scores of 14.84 (SD = 2.76), show significant differences (<0.002) in expression of requests (DV).

Conclusions: The overall level of SS of our students is superior to the sample scales of the Social Skills Scale. In the assessment of Social Skills, deficits do not appear in any of the evaluated dimensions. The SS taken together have not been modified by the variables analyzed; only have responded to the effect of variables "grade", "age' and "previous experience", DII ("ability to defend their rights") and DV ("ability to express requests").