Evaluation of the communication of nursing students in the simulated teleconsultation: A cross-sectional study

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic presented universities with the challenge of virtualizing the teaching-learning process. Simulated teleconsultation has been used in undergraduate training, which allows nursing students to interact with simulated patients remotely. Studies have identified that distance imposes communication barriers on all elements—sender, receiver and message—and in both forms of transmission: verbal and nonverbal. Objective: To describe the communication of nursing students in teleconsultation with simulated patients in the context of primary health care. Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study of 92 fifth-year nursing students. The communication variable was measured with the Connect Identify Understand Agree Help scale. In the data analysis, the mean and standard deviation of the scores on the 29 items of the scale were determined, as were the mean values for the total scale and for the 3 domains of the scale. Results: The items that presented an average of less than 1 were primarily those related to the Agree and Help to Act domain. The total mean was 1.15, and the means for the domains Connect, Identify and Understand Problems and Agree and Help to Act were 1.53, 0.90 and 1.28, respectively. A weakness in the exploration of the psychosocial context of the simulated patients was observed. Conclusions: The results of this study, which evaluated communication in the context of distance care, corroborate the evidence regarding communication in real or simulated face-to-face situations. Studies that compare communication in various teaching-learning contexts, whether real or virtual, face-to-face or at a distance, are recommended.