Enhancing communication between nurses and patients in ambulatory care settings: A pretest-posttest design

Abstract

Background and objective: In ambulatory care settings, effective nurse-patient communication is often hindered by workload pressures and time constraints. A major contributing factor is the lack of nurses’ communication-related knowledge, attitudes, and skills, which affects their ability to engage meaningfully with patients and deliver high-quality care. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of structured interventions in improving nurses’ communication-related knowledge, attitudes, and skills, with the goal of achieving over 95% compliance. Additionally, the study seeks to enhance patient satisfaction to at least 95% within ambulatory care settings.

Methods: This study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design to assess patient satisfaction and a one-group pretest-posttest design to evaluate the impact of the interventions on nurses’ communication with patients.

Results: Nurses’ overall communication compliance increased from 89.85% in the pre-test to 99.03% in the post-test, reflecting significant improvements across the knowledge, skills, and attitude domains. Patient satisfaction also demonstrated a substantial rise, increasing from 77.6% before the interventions to 97.92% afterward.

Conclusions: The implementation of structured interventions—including communication skill development, team collaboration, ongoing training, and motivational initiatives—led to significant improvements in nurses’ communication practices and a marked increase in patient satisfaction within ambulatory care settings. These findings underscore the value of continuous, well-designed communication training in fostering effective nurse-patient interactions and enhancing the overall patient experience.

Keywords

Ambulatory care / Communication / Nurses / Patient satisfaction

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