Evaluation of a counseling training program for nursing staff

One of the essential issues in nurses' daily work is interaction with patients, patients' families. and co-workers. However. in the Spanish academic programs for Nursing Schools, social interaction skills do not receive adequate attention and nurses often report communication problems. In order to diminish these difficulties and to train nursing staff to better manage interaction, an intensive counseling training program was designed and implemented in a General University Hospital. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of a counseling training pro-ram and assessing the evolution of difficulties that professionals perceived in their work in three different periods: before the training, after the training. and at follow-up. 2 months after the program was delivered. According to the results. we can maintain the hypothesis that the counseling training program reduces perceived interaction difficulties in nursing staff. Consequently. we can expect a further improvement in the interaction performance with patients and their families after the training. These findings Suggest that counseling training has to be taken into account to improve quality of care in health care providers, and it may also help to prevent professional burnout by increasing competence level at minimum personal cost. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.