MICROCOUNSELLING: TRAINING IN SKILLS OF THERAPEUTIC COMMUNICATION WITH RN DIPLOMA-PROGRAM NURSING STUDENTS.
Date
1985
Authors
DANIELS, THOMAS G.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Dalhousie University
Abstract
Description
There were two purposes of this study. The first was to assess the applicability of microcounselling to nursing education. In particular, this study assessed the degree to which R.N. diploma-program nursing students acquired and retained six basic microskills of communication. The second purpose was, through appropriate design and analysis, redress many of the criticisms of earlier microcounselling research.
Fifty-three female RN students at the end of their second year of a two year six-month diploma program were randomly assigned to either an experimental-group which received microtraining, or a non-attention control-group. All subjects completed both the Carkhuff Indices of Communication and Discrimination as pretests. The experimental-group then had approximately 25 hrs. of microtraining in the following 6 microskills: Attending Behavior, Questioning, Minimal Encouragers, Paraphrasing, Reflection of Feeling and Summarizing.
Following training, each subject completed the Carkhuff Indices again, the Empathy Construct Rating Scale, and conducted a 10 - 15 minute audio-taped nursing interview in which she assumed the role of a helping nurse.
Multivariate analysis of covariance indicated a significant main effect at post-training suggesting that the experimental-group performed better than the control-group when all the measures were combined together. Specifically, the experimental-group were better than the control-group at communicating empathy as measured by the Carkhuff Empathy Scale. The experimental-group, in contrast to the control-group, evidenced significant gain in empathy from pretest to posttest. The experimental-group performed significantly better than the control-group (made more and appropriate statements) on Reflection of Feeling, Summarizing and Closed-Questions (asked less) as measured by the Ivey Taxonomy. As well, the experimental-group made more Good responses and less Therapeutic Errors than did the control-group as measured by the Therapist Error Checklist. At a 9 month follow-up, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups.
Support was offered for microcounseling with RN diploma-program nursing students, and for microcounselling in general. Further conclusions and recommendations were offered.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University (Canada), 1985.
Fifty-three female RN students at the end of their second year of a two year six-month diploma program were randomly assigned to either an experimental-group which received microtraining, or a non-attention control-group. All subjects completed both the Carkhuff Indices of Communication and Discrimination as pretests. The experimental-group then had approximately 25 hrs. of microtraining in the following 6 microskills: Attending Behavior, Questioning, Minimal Encouragers, Paraphrasing, Reflection of Feeling and Summarizing.
Following training, each subject completed the Carkhuff Indices again, the Empathy Construct Rating Scale, and conducted a 10 - 15 minute audio-taped nursing interview in which she assumed the role of a helping nurse.
Multivariate analysis of covariance indicated a significant main effect at post-training suggesting that the experimental-group performed better than the control-group when all the measures were combined together. Specifically, the experimental-group were better than the control-group at communicating empathy as measured by the Carkhuff Empathy Scale. The experimental-group, in contrast to the control-group, evidenced significant gain in empathy from pretest to posttest. The experimental-group performed significantly better than the control-group (made more and appropriate statements) on Reflection of Feeling, Summarizing and Closed-Questions (asked less) as measured by the Ivey Taxonomy. As well, the experimental-group made more Good responses and less Therapeutic Errors than did the control-group as measured by the Therapist Error Checklist. At a 9 month follow-up, there were no statistically significant differences between the groups.
Support was offered for microcounseling with RN diploma-program nursing students, and for microcounselling in general. Further conclusions and recommendations were offered.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Dalhousie University (Canada), 1985.
Keywords
Education, Educational Psychology., Health Sciences, Nursing.