Relationship between smartphone addiction of nursing department students and their communication skills.

BACKGROUND

The use of technological devices today is widespread. One of these devices is the smartphone. It can be argued that when smartphones are thought of as a means of communication, they can influence communication skills.

AIM

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of nursing students' smartphone addiction on their communication skills.

METHODS

A relational screening model was used for the study. The study's data were obtained from 214 students studying in the nursing department.

RESULTS

Smartphone addiction levels of students are below average (86.43 ± 29.66). Students think that their communication skills are at a good level (98.81 ± 10.88). Correlation analysis results show that students have a negative, significant and very weak relationship between the smartphone addiction of students and communication skills (r = -.149). Smartphone addiction explains 2.2% of the variance in communication skills.

CONCLUSIONS

Communication skills of nursing students is affected negatively by smartphone addiction.