title: Relational skills and preserving patient privacy in the caring process.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to analyze the development and mobilization of relational skills central to the caring process among nursing students throughout their professional training.
  
  
  METHODS
  this was a quantitative study, descriptive and cross-sectional in design. The sample consisted of nursing undergraduate students from the Higher School of Health Sciences, in the city of Évora, Portugal. Data were collected using the previously validated Helping Relational Skills Inventory.
  
  
  RESULTS
  the students gradually acquired "generic skills", "communication skills" and "contact skills", presenting the highest mean score in the last year of the program. However, the highest mean score for the "empathetic skills" subscale was presented by second-year students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  age and year in program were found to be decisive variables regarding the acquisition of specific skills (empathetic and communication) by nursing students.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: Maria Otília
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Zangão
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Enfermagem, Escola Superior de Enfermagem São João de Deus, Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal.
authors.forename: Felismina Rosa Parreira
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Mendes
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004506:Education, Nursing; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009729:Nursing / Q000592:standards; D018907:Privacy; D013338:Students, Nursing; D055815:Young Adult