Abstract
Background: Nursing in medical and surgical wards is demanding, requiring strong communication skills to enhance coordination and may reduce task load.
Objectives: To assess the communication skills and task load, and compare these variables in medical and surgical wards among nurses.
Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted over six months of period in major hospitals of Abbottabad (2024). Convenience sampling technique was used and a total of 197 registered nurses was collected. Ethical approval was obtained and consent was taken before data collection. Standards questionnaire were used including Communication Skills Questionnaire (CSQ), and Task Load Index (TLX). Inferential analyses included chi-square tests, and spearman’rho correlation.
Results: The nurses mean aged was 31.88±7.92 years, with more of them being female (58.88%), and married (61.42%). Most were diploma holders (44.16%), and a significant proportion had 1–5 years of experience (55.33%). Marital status was significantly associated with ward placement, where single nurses were more likely in medical wards and married nurses in surgical wards. Age and experience status showed significant (P value<0.05) moderate positive correlation (ρ=0.25) with task load, whereas education levels showed weak negative correlation (ρ=-0.14) with task load. Regression analysis confirmed that communication skills highly significantly (P value<0.01, OR=3.77, 95% Cl=2.27-6.28) predicted increasing task load.
Conclusion: Improved communication skills play a crucial role in managing task load effectively. It is recommended that hospitals implement communication training programs, and optimize workload distribution to better manage nurses well being.
References
1. Spelten E, Thomas B, O'Meara PF, Maguire BJ, FitzGerald D, Begg SJ. Organisational interventions for preventing and minimising aggression directed towards healthcare workers by patients and patient advocates. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2020(4).
2. Nilsson A, Edvardsson D, Rushton C. Nurses’ descriptions of person‐centred care for older people in an acute medical ward—On the individual, team and organisational levels’. Journal of clinical nursing. 2019;28(7-8):1251-9.
3. Griffiths P, Saville C, Ball J, Jones J, Pattison N, Monks T, et al. Nursing workload, nurse staffing methodologies and tools: A systematic scoping review and discussion. International journal of nursing studies. 2020;103:103487.
4. Robinson OP, Bridges SA, Rollins LH, Schumacker RE. A study of the relation between special education burnout and job satisfaction. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs. 2019;19(4):295-303.
5. Sumaiya B, Srivastava S, Jain V, Prakash V. The role of effective communication skills in professional life. World Journal of English Language. 2022;12(3):134-40.
6. Rosen MA, DiazGranados D, Dietz AS, Benishek LE, Thompson D, Pronovost PJ, et al. Teamwork in healthcare: Key discoveries enabling safer, high-quality care. American Psychologist. 2018;73(4):433.
7. Alrabae YMA, Aboshaiqah AE, Tumala RB. The association between self‐reported workload and perceptions of patient safety culture: A study of intensive care unit nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 2021;30(7-8):1003-17.
8. Phillips C. Relationships between workload perception, burnout, and intent to leave among medical–surgical nurses. JBI Evidence Implementation. 2020;18(2):265-73.
9. Al‐Kandari F, Thomas D. Perceived adverse patient outcomes correlated to nurses’ workload in medical and surgical wards of selected hospitals in Kuwait. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 2009;18(4):581-90.
10. Thorne SE, Harris SR, Mahoney K, Con A, McGuinness L. The context of health care communication in chronic illness. Patient education and counseling. 2004;54(3):299-306.
11. Wagner EH. The role of patient care teams in chronic disease management. Bmj. 2000;320(7234):569-72.
12. Watson AG, McCoy JV, Mathew J, Gundersen DA, Eisenstein RM. Impact of physician workload on burnout in the emergency department. Psychology, health & medicine. 2019;24(4):414-28.
13. Brown J, Pope N, Bosco AM, Mason J, Morgan A. Issues affecting nurses' capability to use digital technology at work: An integrative review. Journal of clinical nursing. 2020;29(15-16):2801-19.
14. Organization WH. State of the world's nursing 2020: Investing in education, jobs and leadership: World Health Organization; 2020.
15. Diao D, Chen X, Zhong L, Zhang H, Zhang J. Sex differences in burnout and work-family conflict among Chinese emergency nurses: a cross-sectional study. Frontiers in Public Health. 2024;12:1492662.
16. Sharma N, Chakrabarti S, Grover S. Gender differences in caregiving among family-caregivers of people with mental illnesses. World journal of psychiatry. 2016;6(1):7.
17. Khattak KF, Khattak MK, Khattak KUK. Health Care’s Dares: Challenging Duties and Psychoemotional Issues to Female Nurse–Human Resources in Professional Practices. Journal of Development and Social Sciences. 2023;4(3):1249-64.
18. Aiken LH, Sloane DM, Bruyneel L, Van den Heede K, Griffiths P, Busse R, et al. Nurse staffing and education and hospital mortality in nine European countries: a retrospective observational study. The lancet. 2014;383(9931):1824-30.
19. Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Initiative on the Future of Nursing atIoM. The future of nursing: Leading change, advancing health: National Academies Press; 2011.
20. Khowaja-Punjwani S, Macer D, Rafique N. A Qualitative Study Exploring Perceptions of Pakistani Nurses about Nursing Workforce Migration: Analysis and Policy Implications. Liaquat National Journal of Primary Care. 2023;5(3).
21. Greene MZ, Gillespie KH. Factors Related to Burnout Among Perinatal Home Visiting Nurses. The Journal of perinatal & neonatal nursing. 2023;37(3):187-95.
22. Leonard M, Graham S, Bonacum D. The human factor: the critical importance of effective teamwork and communication in providing safe care. BMJ Quality & Safety. 2004;13(suppl 1):i85-i90.
23. Salmond S, Ropis PE. Job stress and general well-being: a comparative study of medical-surgical and home care nurses. Medsurg Nursing. 2005;14(5):301.
24. Ferramosca FMP, De Maria M, Ivziku D, Raffaele B, Lommi M, Tolentino Diaz MY, et al., editors. Nurses’ organization of work and its relation to workload in medical surgical units: A cross-sectional observational multi-center study. Healthcare; 2023: MDPI.Chen Z, Wang T, Du J, Sun L, Wang G, Ni R, et al. Decoding the WHO global tuberculosis report 2024: a critical analysis of global and Chinese key data. Zoonoses. 2025;5(1):999.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 Journal of Nursing and Allied Health