Relationship between Nurse Managers' Facilitative Communication and Nurses' Self-esteem

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between nurse managers' facilitative communication as perceived by nurses and nurses' self-esteem. Methods: The subjects were 256 staff nurses at B hospital of C University in Kyeonggi-do. The data were collected between December 1, 2009 and January 12, 2010. The collected data were analyzed using the SAS program through t-test, ANOVA, Scheff e test, Pearson's correlation coefficients. Results: Nurses' self-esteem was higher when nurse managers perceived them as facilitative communicators in empathic understanding and genuineness subgroup of facilitative communication (p<.05). There was a positive correlation between nurse managers' facilitative communication and nurses' self-esteem(r=.15, p=.015). Also there was a positive correlation among the nurse managers' facilitative communication subgroups, empathic understanding; genuineness; concreteness(r=0.18, p=.004; r=0.18, p=.003; r=0.19, p=.002) and nurses' self-esteem. Conclusion: Nurse managers are in need of facilitative communication. Therefore, job education and training for improving nurse managers' communication skills particularly related to empathic understanding, genuineness and concreteness are required.