THE INFLUENCE OF ANXIETY ON THE SOCIAL AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE FORMATION IN FUTURE NURSES UNDER CONDITIONS OF WAR

Abstract

Communicative competence and readiness for interpersonal interaction is the nurse’s key professional trait and requires both communication skills training and appropriate psychological preparation. War in Ukraine significantly affected all areas of the social life, including education, plunging the educational process participants into chronic stress and uncertainty.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between the degree of situational and personal anxiety of medical college students – future nurses and the formation of their social and communicative competence under conditions of war.

An online survey was conducted for 75 3^rd-year students of Pervomaisk Medical Professional College, Mykolaiv region, who were studying for the specialty “Bachelor of Nursing” in the period of 2022–2023. The level of respondents’ situational and personal anxiety was determined using the Spielberger-Khanin questionnaire. The level of social and communicative competence (SCC) was investigated with the test “Definition of social and communicative competence” by V. Ovcharova. Such components as social and communicative awkwardness, intolerance of uncertainty, orientation towards failure avoidance and frustration intolerance were studied.

It was revealed the high general level of respondents’ anxiety. The majority of interviewees with high personal anxiety also had a high level of situational anxiety (56 %). In persons with a high anxiety level, the values of almost all studied components of SCC were higher than the average indicators, which suggests problems of their SCC formation. At the same time, in the group of students with medium anxiety level, the values of SCC parameters were significantly lower from the mean values in the cohort.

Respondents were also asked to answer the open-ended question: “Are there any features in communication with depressive patients?” The received answers content analysis showed that students who were action-oriented in communication with depressed patients, demonstrated better SCC, while those who were able to recognize a depressed patient, but were not focused on how to communicate with him, demonstrated ineffective strategies in communication: failure avoidance, frustration and uncertainty intolerance.

The results of the study confirm the negative impact of war in Ukraine on the anxiety level of future nursing students. It is necessary to develop the approaches for students’ stress removal as well as training methods on how to apply effective coping strategies and act in difficult communication situations.