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..