The major purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of a communication skills training program on nursing staff members' levels of communication and attitudes toward old age. Further, this study sought to investigate if nursing home residents' levels of life satisfaction were affected by the staff's participation in the training program.

The subjects were the staff of two skilled nursing care facilities. The subjects included registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and certified nurses' aides. Residents who were mentally and physically able to respond to a questionnaire were randomly selected for the pre-posttest assessment of residents' level of life satisfaction.

The training program was 12 weeks in length. The Doyle Role Communication Skills model (1981, 1992) was used to train staff in the attending, clarifying, and reassuring/supporting roles. The Attitude Towards Old Age Scale (ATOPS) was used to measure staff members' attitudes toward old age. The Carkhuff Discrimination Index (CDI) measured the staff's levels of communication. The residents' levels of life satisfaction were measured by the Philadelphia Geriatric Center Morale Scale (PGCMS).

The data was analyzed using one-way analysis of covariance for each dependent variable posttest score, with the pretest dependent variable score as covariate. An alpha level of.05 was used to establish significance of the test results.

The results of data analyses were: (1) there was a significant difference between the adjusted mean posttest CDI scores of the experimental and control groups; (2) there was no significant difference between the adjusted ATOPS scores of the experimental and control groups; and (3) there was a significant difference between the adjusted posttest PGCMS scores of residents cared for by the experimental and control groups.

The results of this study indicated that: (1) Skilled nursing care facility staff can be taught skills which will improve their level of communication; (2) the attitudes of the experimental group members toward old age were not significantly different from the control group attitudes toward old age; and (3) the residents cared for by the experimental group members had a significantly higher level of life satisfaction than residents cared for by control group members.