Interpersonal Communication Skills of Nurse and Patient Satisfaction in Outpatient Unit

Abstract

Interpersonal communication skills are one of the important things in nursing care. These skills mediate patient and nurse trust. Trust in health services is also stated as a factor that mediates patient loyalty to health services. Satisfaction is not always directly related to loyalty but its mediated by trust. This research aimed to identify a correlation between the interpersonal communication skills of nurses with the satisfaction of outpatients in hospitals. The research design used was a cross-sectional analytic design. Total 100 respondents in the outpatient unit were recruited using cluster random sampling. All instruments of interpersonal communication skills and patient satisfaction were based on validity and reliability test. Data analysis was done using Chi-square. The result showed that more than half of respondents (54%) said that the interpersonal communication skills of the nurse were good, and they were satisfied (51%). Bivariate analysis showed that there was a correlation between the interpersonal communication skills of the nurse with patient satisfaction (p < 0.001, OR 2.946). This finding recommends that the interpersonal communication skills of nurses need to be developed by training to increase patient satisfaction. Keywords: interpersonal communication, patient satisfaction, nurse communication