SELF-ASSESSMENT ON THE CONFIDENCE AND PREPAREDNESS OF NURSING STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATION ABILITIES IN CLINICAL PLACEMENT

One of the most critical competencies of nursing students is effective communication abilities. It aids in performing nursing tasks competently and achieving a meaningful learning experience in the clinical setting. The study assessed the level of confidence and preparedness of nursing students' communication abilities for clinical placement. This research also identified the factors influencing nursing students’ confidence and preparedness. Moreover, descriptive-evaluative, descriptive-comparative, and descriptivecorrelational designs were used to evaluate the confidence and preparedness levels and examine the relationships and differences between variables under the study. The researchers used a validated researcher-made questionnaire to gather nursing students' perspectives on their communication abilities and also utilized a total enumeration of the second, third, and fourth-year nursing students enrolled at the Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation. Results show that nursing students are confident in utilizing their interpersonal and intrapersonal communication skills and are prepared to execute communication-related nursing tasks in the clinical setting. Respondents strongly agree that personal characteristics influenced their confidence and preparedness to utilize communication skills more than environmental factors. In addition, only their age has a significant association with their confidence level in interpersonal communication skills when it comes to demographic profile. It was also discovered that nursing students' levels of confidence significantly correlate with their level of preparedness.