Publication:

Perceptions and perceived challenges of nursing students in maintaining interpersonal relationship with the healthcare team: a cross-sectional study

Background Interpersonal skills help student nurses enhance their teamwork quality, positive attitude, mutual effort in taking care of patients with other team members, and having gratitude for others help them learn how to work as a team. The study assesses the nursing student's perceptions of their interpersonal relationship (IPR) with the healthcare team (HCT) and the challenges faced by them in maintaining IPR in hospital settings.

Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 202 BSc (Hons) nursing students. The data was collected with a socio-demographic proforma, rating scale and a checklist using a purposive sampling technique.

Results The median age of the participants was 21 (20 and 22) years. Among 202 participants; 74, 72 and 56 participants belong to 2nd, 3rd and 4th year BSc (Hons) nursing respectively. The 20.29% had very good IPR, 43.56% had good, 24.25% had moderate, and 11.88% had low IPR with the HCT. Most of the students perceive that good IPR with HCT helped them to reduce gap between their theoretical knowledge and practical skills (Relative importance index, RII=0.8) There is an association between the level of IPR with seniority of nursing students (χ2-21.523, df=6, p=0.001). The most common challenges faced by student nurses include language differences (84.7%) and lack of respect shown by HCT towards student nurses (80.7%).

Conclusions These findings provide valuable insights for the nursing community, with ultimate goal of improving patient care, promoting teamwork, and cultivating a positive learning environment for nursing students in hospital settings.