To explore the status quo of nurse-patient communication ability in undergraduate nursing students in the early stage of clinical practice and its influencing factors, and provide a basis for clinical nursing education managers to formulate a training plan for communication skills of undergraduate nursing students in the clinical practice stage.

From August to September 2019, totally 960 undergraduate nursing students engaging in clinical nursing practice for≤3 months were investigated. The survey content included demographic data, training content of nurse-patient communication ability, and clinical communication ability of nursing students. The status quo and influencing factors of communication ability of undergraduate nursing students in the early stage of clinical practice were analyzed.

The nurse-patient communication ability score of 960 undergraduate nursing students in the early stage of clinical practice was (2.18±0.21) , with the highest score in the dimension of acute listening (2.42±0.51) and the lowest score in the dimension of verification feeling (1.88±0.51) . Univariate analysis showed that there were statistically significant differences in the nurse-patient communication ability in the early stage of clinical practice between undergraduate nursing students with different gender, with or without training for nurse-patient communication in the early stage of clinical practice in the hospital and with different training forms (P<0.05) . Pearson correlation analysis revealed that the nurse-patient communication ability score of undergraduate nursing students in the early stage of clinical practice was positively correlated with the number of nurse-patient communication training sessions in the hospital (r=0.456, P<0.01) . According to multiple linear regression analysis, the number of training sessions and training forms in the hospital were main influencing factors to the nurse-patient communication ability of undergraduate nursing students in the early stage of clinical practice (P<0.05) .

The level of nurse-patient communication ability in undergraduate nursing students in the early stage of clinical practice is low and needs to be further improved. Clinical nursing teaching managers should formulate effective training programs based on its influencing factors to strengthen training accordingly.

Students, nursing; Undergraduate; Communication ability; Early stage of clinical practice; Influencing factor