Abstract:

Objective: This study was aimed at determining the effect of smartphone addiction levels of nursing students on communication skills. Methods: This study was carried out using a descriptive design with nursing students (n=279) between April and May 2017. The data was obtained using "The Personal Information Form", "The Smart Phone Addiction Scale Short Form", and "The Communication Skills Assessment Scale". Percentage, mean, standard deviation, Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test, Pearson correlation analysis were used for statistical analysis. Results: Age of 71% of nursing students is 21 or more and 96.2% of them use the internet and 95.3% of them have access to the internet daily. 92.1% of these students have access to the internet via smart phone. The average score of the Students' Smart Phone Addiction Scale Short Form is 30.43±11.08 and the average of Communication Skills Assessment Scale is 71.38±16.59. There is a negative and statistically significant relationship between students' communication skills and smart phone use levels (r=-0.162; p<0.01). Conclusion: As the smartphone addiction levels of nursing students increase, their communication skills decrease. It may be advisable to evaluate smartphone use in terms of effective use in education and communication in daily life.

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