Study of acquisition of content knowledge during a listening-and-responding-skills workshop for nurses

This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of a workshop as a method of teaching appropriate listening and responding skills to seventeen selected nurses. Knowledge of facts and principles in effective communication and their application were measured by a specially designed pre- and post-test. Fourteen specific areas which related directly to content covered in the workshop were studied. The means of the pre- and post-test scores were compared, and t-tests were computed to determine whether there was a significant difference. While statistical significance was reached at the .005 level of confidence in three areas, the .01 level in one area, and the .05 level in five areas, generalizable conclusions were difficult to draw. Further investigation needs to be conducted to study the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching communication skills to nurses.