The Relationship between Communication Skills and Intellectual Health in Senior-Year Students of Paramedicine School at Kashan University of Medical Sciences 2019

Communication skills are the ability to communicate effectively and efficiently with others, which plays a role in people's intellectual and psychological health; therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the relationship between communication skills and intellectual health in senior students of Paramedicine School at Kashan University of Medical Sciences.

The present study is descriptive-analytical, which was performed cross-sectionally in 2019 on 95 senior students of the Paramedicine School of Kashan University of Medical Sciences. The census method was used in this study due to the limitations of the statistical population. The data collection tool consisted of three parts: Participants' demographic profile, Barton's standard communication skills questionnaire (1990), and intellectual health questionnaire based on the intellectual health scale of entrepreneurs' personality traits assessment questionnaire. The questionnaire was presented to the students in person. After collecting data, it was entered into SPSS 22 software and analyzed with descriptive indices (mean and standard deviation) and analytical statistics (Pearson's correlation and t-test).

The total mean score of the communication skills in students was 59.61±5.82. There was a direct and significant relationship between verbal and listening skills (r = 0.32, p = 0.003), verbal and feedback skills (r = 0.43, p = 0.001), listening and feedback skills (r = 0.41, p = 0.001). The mean mental health of the participants in the study was 33.45±5.02 There was a positive correlation between communication skills and intellectual health in students (r = 0.2, p = .07).

Communication skills affect intellectual health. Therefore, it is recommended that educational workshops on communication skills and how to communicate be held for students at the beginning and during the study, and that psychological counseling centers be set up or become more active in the university.