the effect of blended role-playing and reflective training on nursing students' communication skills with depressed patients

Background & objective: communicating with depressed patients is a crucial professional skill for nursing students, which they must learn during their studies. this study aimed to assess the effectiveness of blended training—incorporating both role-playing and reflective practice—on nursing students' communication skills in their interactions with depressed patients. materials & methods: the present semi-experimental study was conducted in 2023 with a before and after two-group design. all sixth-semester nursing students at torbat jam faculty of medical sciences were randomly selected and divided into two groups: an experimental group and a control group. the intervention included therapeutic communication skill training sessions with the role-playing and reflection blended method. the control group received the standard training method. therapeutic communication skills in dealing with depressed patients before and after the intervention were evaluated by a communication skills questionnaire. data were analyzed using the statistical software spss version 20, descriptive statistical tests and inferential tests (t-test, analysis of variance, and paired-t) at a significance level 0.05. results: the average communication skills scores before the intervention showed no statistically significant difference between the intervention and control groups (p > 0.05). however, the mean score of communication skills after the intervention was significantly different in the two groups (p < 0.05). the results also indicated that the mean communication skill score after the intervention significantly improved in the experimental group compared to before the intervention (p < 0.05). however, there was no statistically significant change in the mean communication skill score in the control group before and after the intervention (p > 0.05). conclusion: educational system managers and planners are suggested to use a blend of these two methods to train nursing students' communication skills, especially in the psychiatric department and when dealing with depressed patients.