The effects of nurses’ communication styles, nurse-mother partnerships, and mothers’ anxiety on coping of hospitalized children’s mothers

Abstract

Purpose: This descriptive study aimed to identify the contribution of nurses’ communication styles, nurse-mother partnerships, and mothers’ anxiety levels to the coping of mothers of hospitalized children, with the goal of establishing effective intervention strategies based on these factors.Methods: Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from July 12 to October 29, 2018. The study’s participants were 200 hospitalized children’s mothers in the pediatric ward of a university hospital.Results: The coping of hospitalized children’s mothers showed a significant relationship with nurses’ informative communication style (r=.26, <i>p</i><.001), affective communication style (r=.28, <i>p</i><.001), nurse-mother partnership (r=.50, <i>p</i><.001), authoritative communication style (r=-.28, <i>p</i><.001), and mothers’ anxiety (r=-.23, <i>p</i>=.001). A multiple regression analysis (adjusted R²=.32) indicated that the factors affecting the mothers’ coping included nurse-mother partnership (<i>β</i>=.47, <i>p</i><.001), another caregiver (yes) (<i>β</i>=.17, <i>p</i>=.006), and mothers’ subjective health status (very healthy) (<i>β</i>=.15, <i>p</i>=.047).Conclusion: Considering that the formation of cooperative partnerships between mothers and nurses found in this study had a positive effect on the mothers’ coping skills, it appears necessary to develop and implement programs for improving nurses’ communication skills and ability to form partnerships, beginning from undergraduate education.