A qualitative study on communication between nursing students and the family members of patients.

BACKGROUND: When caring for a family as a unit, it is as crucial to communicate with the family members of a patient as it is with the patient. However, there is a lack of research on the views of nursing students on communicating with the family members of patients, and little has been mentioned in the nursing curriculum on this topic.

AIM: The aim of this study was to explore nursing students' experiences of communicating with the family members of patients.

DESIGN: A qualitative descriptive study.

METHODS: A total of 42 nursing students (21 undergraduate year-two students and 21 were master's year-one students) from one school of nursing in Hong Kong participated in in-depth individual interviews. Content analysis was adopted. The trustworthiness of this study was ensured by enhancing its credibility, confirmability, and dependability.

RESULTS: Two main themes were discerned. The first, "inspirations gained from nursing student-family communication", included the following sub-themes: (a) responding to enquiries clearly, (b) avoiding sensitive topics, (c) listening to the patient's family, and (d) sharing one's own experiences. The second, "emotions aroused from nursing student-family communication", had the following sub-themes: (a) happiness, (b) anger, (c) sadness, and (d) anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS: More studies on the perspectives of nursing students on communicating with family members should be conducted, to strengthen the contents and learning outcomes of nursing student-family communication in the existing nursing curriculum.