The effect of Alexithymia level on communication skills in intensive care nurses

Abstract

This research was carried out as a descriptive study to determine the effect of alexithymia level on communication skills in intensive care nurses. The research was carried out between 15/02/2023-01/06/2023 with the participation of 105 nurses working in the intensive care units of a university hospital. The data were collected by using a 17-question information form prepared by the researcher in line with the literature, which determines the socio-demographic and communication skills of the nurses, and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Health Professionals Communication Skills Scale. The conformity of the data to normal distribution was evaluated by Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogorov Smirnov tests. Kruskal Wallis test, Mann Whitney U test, One-Way Analysis of Variance, and independent sample t-test were used in data analysis. In line with the findings obtained from this study, it was determined that intensive care nurses with high levels of alexithymia had low communication skills.
 Keywords: Alexithymia; communication; communication skills; nurse; intensive care.