Effects of video interaction analysis training on nurse-patient communication in the care of the elderly

This paper describes an empirical evaluation of communication skills traini ng for nurses in elderly care. The training programme was based on Video In teraction Analysis and aimed to improve nurses' communication skills such t hat they pay attention to patients' physical, social and emotional needs an d support self care in elderly people. The effects of the training course w ere measured in an experimental and control group. They were rated by indep endent observers, by comparing videotapes of nursing encounters before and after training. Forty nurses participated in 316 videotaped nursing encount ers. Multi-level analysis was used to take into account similarity among sa me nurse encounters. It was found that nurses who followed the training pro gramme, provided the patients with more information about nursing and healt h topics. They also used more open-ended questions. In addition, they were rated as more involved, warmer and less patronizing. Due to limitations in the study design, it could not be demonstrated that these findings can enti rely be ascribed to the training course. Further research, incorporating a randomized controlled design and larger sample sizes, is recommended to det ermine whether the results can be attributed to this specific type of train ing. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.