Nursing and Midwifery Students’ Communication Skills Training: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Communication skills are reported to be of high importance for nursing and midwifery practice. Communication skills refers to how actions are used in sending messages. The necessity for nurses and midwives to be good communicators has been demonstrated. Objective: To investigate the quality of evidence of communication skills training for nursing and midwifery students on patients’ outcome in nursing and midwifery colleges. Methods: Firstly, a search in the databases of Ovid Medline (1946 - present), Ebscohost and CINAHL (1960 - present) to find relevant studies were conducted. Secondly, there was hand searching of three journals from Africa. Thirdly, the reference lists of studies found were searched for additional studies. Fourthly, there was consultation with professionals around communication skills training and the leadership of Ghana Nurses and Midwives Association. Results: Quality assessment using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system found that out of the 10 studies that were included, only one was of moderate quality. The other nine studies were of low quality. Conclusions: The literature on enhancing communication skills training in nursing and midwifery students shows that the quality of evidence is generally low. This study has implications on how communication is handled in nursing schools and demonstrated which communication has high evidence. Systematic Review Registration: This systematic review was not registered in a registry.