The study attempted to determine if a nurse's communication style influences the choice of nursing specialty. It further sought to identify implications for education of nurses in the area of communication.

A review of the literature revealed an agreement that communication is a vital part of nursing care. Little information was discovered regarding communication styles of nurses in specialty areas.

Registered nurses in four specialty areas: critical care, operating room, oncology and psychosocial nursing, were selected from a pool of volunteers to participate in the study. A Communicating Styles Survey based on Jung's personality types and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator were administered to the subjects. A needs assessment survey questionnaire developed by the investigator was administered to another group selected from the volunteers.

Although the findings were not statistically significant, there did appear to be relationships between communication style and specialty choice. A larger number of nurses in the operating room and critical care groups preferred the thinking style to the other styles. The preferred communicating style of the oncology group was evenly split between feeling and sensing. Nearly half of the nurses in the psychosocial group preferred the feeling style of communication. It was not possible to determine whether the nurses had developed their preferred styles of communication prior to entering their specialties or whether their styles were developed as a result of working in the specialty areas.

There was a moderate positive correlation between the communication styles and the personality types measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

The needs assessment indicated a perceived need for experiential education in communication. Many of the respondents thought role playing, videotaping of communication exchanges followed by a critique and working with a mentor would provide means of improving communication skills.