The Effectiveness of Group Counseling with Emphasis on Communication Skills on Midwifery Students’ Sense of Belonging in Clinical Settings

Abstract

Background: It seems that by improvement of communication skills among midwifery students, their sense of belonging in the medical setting increases. Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the effect of group counseling with emphasis on communication skills on midwifery students’ sense of belonging in clinical settings. Methods: This interventional study with the pretest-posttest control group design was conducted on 78 midwifery students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, in 2016. The participants were selected using the census method. Of the total study population, sixty students with low level of mental health were screened using Goldberg's General Health Questionnaire and randomly included in intervention and a control group. They filled out Belongingness Scale–Clinical Placement Experience (BES–CPE) as the pretest. The intervention consisted of eight group counseling sessions (two 2-hour sessions per week) with emphasis on communication skills that were held in their faculty. The final sample included fifty two students filling out the posttest instruments. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22. Results: There was no significant difference in terms of demographic factors between two groups. There was a significant difference between the groups in terms of total score (p <0.0001) as well as the self-esteem and self-efficacy subscales (p <0.05). Conclusion: Sense of belonging in clinical settings is required for midwifery students so that they can improve their communication skills in such settings. Therefore, it is recommended to include programs in midwifery curricula in order to improve students’ sense of belonging by enhancing their communication skills.