Abstract
Assertive communication skills are key to establishing and safe effective teamwork. Nursing education has long been recognized as important for providing the future workforce with high-calibre interpersonal skills, including assertive communication ones.
1. Introduction
Assertiveness is a crucial interpersonal skill that aims at addressing the power imbalance among individuals. Assertiveness is referred to as the honest and legitimate expression of one's personal opinions, needs and feelings without denying or violating the rights of the others.
2. Aim of the study
This aim of this study is to explore newly-graduated British and Saudi nurses' views on the contributions of undergraduate nursing education towards developing and practising their assertive communication skills.
4. Findings
134 questionnaires were returned, of which 96 (42%) had meaningful qualitative responses (i.e., Completed fully or partially and can be read), split equally between the two countries (48 responses each), although percentages of nurses who responded with meaningful responses were different in each country (57% in UK and 34% in Saudi Arabia).
5. Discussion
To our knowledge, this is the first cross-country study that addresses the undergraduate nursing education from the newly-qualified nurse's perspective using qualitative methods.
6. Limitations
The study relied on the participants' recollection of their past experience which may be flawed owing to the passage of time. The participants expressed their views using free-text comments, which may have limited the quality and richness of the data obtained.
7. Conclusion
Undergraduate nursing education across the UK and Saudi Arabia appears to convey the need to acquire assertive communication skills.