The Effect of Communication Skills Training on COVID-19 Stress in Medical Students of Islamic Azad University

Subject Areas : curriculum

Parenaz Banisi ¹

1 - Associate Professor of Educational Administration, West Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

Received: 2021-10-31 Accepted : 2022-02-15 Published : 2021-09-23

Keywords: communication skills, Medical Students, COVID-19 stress,

Abstract :

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of communication skills training on COVID-19 stress in medical students of Islamic Azad University in the 2021-2022 academic years. This study was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The research sample included 170 individuals who were selected by simple random sampling method and randomly placed into two groups of 85 namely experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the communication skills training but the control group did not receive any special intervention. The instrument was COVID-19 stress scale. The data were analyzed by running chi-square, independent t-test and univariate analysis of covariance in SPSS 26 software. The findings of chi-square and independent t-tests showed that the experimental and control groups did not significantly differ in terms of gender and mean age (P>0.05). Also, the results of univariate analysis of covariance indicated that communication skills training reduced COVID-19 stress in medical students (P<0.001). Findings demonstrated the effective role of communication skills training in reducing the stress of COVID-19 in medical students. Therefore, mental health professionals can rely on communication skills to reduce the problems related to Corona virus.