ASSESSMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS APPLIED BY PRINCIPALS OF SCHOOLS OF NURSING IN THE SOUTH EAST ZONE OF NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
Principals of schools of nursing are confronted with situations that involve a lot of communication.The aim of the study therefore was to assess the administrative communication skills of principals of schools of nursing in the South East Zone of Nigeria. Five research questions and 10 null hypotheses guided the study. A descriptive survey was adopted for the study and the 16 principals and 166 regular teachers in the 16 Schools of Nursing in the zone were used for the study, hence, no sampling. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire. The instrument was validated and found reliable following the reliability test using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The reliability co-efficient on the principals questionnaire recorded 0.82 showing high internal consistency and that of the teachers recorded 0.94. The instrument was administered to the respondents directly. The data generated from the research questions were analysed using mean, while the null hypotheses were tested using t-test. Major findings include: the rating of the respondents indicated that the principals apply listening communication skills to high extent, except for item five which they apply to very high extent; the respondents believed that the principals apply non-verbal communication skills to high extent; they also indicated that the principals apply oral communication skills to high extent; the respondents accepted that the principals apply written communication skills to high extent; and, equally indicated that the principals apply feedback communication skills to high extent. The principals and teachers did not differ significantly in their assessment of the principals’ application of the listening and non-verbal communication skills while they differed significantly in their application of oral, written and feedback communication skills. There is significant difference in the extent prnicipals in small and large schools apply listening, non-verbal and written communication skills. Based on these findings and implications of the study, recommendations and areas for further studies were highlighted in this study.