Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p> <bold>Introduction:</bold> Communication between healthcare professionals and patients is becoming increasingly important. <bold>The aim of this study</bold> : was to assess the communication skills of oncology nurses in the context of self-esteem, empathy, emotional control, and conflict resolution style. <bold>Material ad Methods:</bold> The study included 200 nurses working with oncology patients. The following standardized tools were used in this study: The Communication Skills Questionnaire (CQM) – developed by Sylwiusz Retowski, The Rosenberg Self-Assessment Scale (SES), The Empathic Understanding of Other People Questionnaire (EMQ), The Emotional Control Scale (CECS), Conflict Resolution Style (TKI - Thomas Killman Test). <bold>Results:</bold> The assessment of communication skills using the REK questionnaire in the case of rhetorical communication reached an average value of 25.9 pts. The average level of self-esteem of the respondents assessed using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES) was approximately 21.4 points. In the assessment of empathy using the Empathic Understanding Questionnaire (EMQ), an average score of 64.8 pts. The used Emotion Control Questionnaire (CECS) allowed us to conclude that the obtained results indicate a relatively high level of negative emotion suppression. The anger suppression scale averaged 17.5 pts. The depression suppression scale averaged 17.9 points, and the anxiety suppression scale averaged 18.3 pts. The mean overall measure of negative emotion control was 53.8 pts. the surveyed nurses most often used the negotiation style based on cooperation (average 7.3 pts), then compromise (average 6.2 pts) and competition (average 5.7 pts), and least often on accommodation (average 5.5 pts) and avoidance (average 5.3 pts). <bold>Conclusions:</bold> No statistically significant relationship was found between rhetorical and expressive communication skills and the age and experience of the surveyed nurses. It was shown that education and specialization did not differentiate communication skills. The lower the self-assessment of competence, the lower the psychometric measurement of rhetorical and conventional communication skills. As self-assessment and the level of empathic understanding increased, so did the level of rhetorical communication skills. Expressive communication skills were statistically significantly associated only with self-assessment, but the strength of this relationship was very weak. Suppression of negative emotions was not statistically significantly associated with conventional communication skills; the greater the suppression, the lower the expressive communication skills. Preference for specific conflict resolution styles was very weakly associated with communication skills. </p>