Iran Journal of Nursing

Introduction
Oral presentations are widely used for assessing student performance in higher education settings. They are crucial for evaluating students’ knowledge of a subject. A well-prepared and effectively delivered oral presentation can provide new information to the listeners and explain and organize complex thinking patterns. Competence in oral presentations involves knowledge, skill, and attitude needed to speak in public for informing, self-expressing, communicating, and persuading others. Oral presentations is used in various academic disciplines, including medicine, nursing, engineering, health, business, and communication. Effective presentation skills can be acquired through learning and are not determined by genetically. 
Nurses provide patient care and medical information to other healthcare members, patients and their families. It is important to include training on oral presentation skills in the curriculum of nursing students to evaluate their progress using appropriate tools. This study aims to determine the competency of oral presentation in nursing students from Ardabil University of Medical Sciences (AUMS).

Methods 
This is a cross-sectional study that was conducted in 2023. Participants were 274 nursing students of AUMS in the Academic year of 2022-2023. A demographic form was used to survey their age, gender, marital status, semester, native language, history of oral presentation, history of participation in public speaking courses, and history of reading public speaking books. Chiang’s oral presentation evaluation scale (OPES) was also used which has 15 items and three subscales: Accuracy of content, effective communication, and clarity of speech. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS software, version 20. 

Results
The mean age of the participants was 23.08±2.62 years. The majority of them were female (52.6%) and Azari language (91.2%). The total score of oral presentation competence was equal to 58.81±7.75. The mean score of competency in the dimension of accuracy in content was 4.01±0.348, in effective communication was 3.72±0.658, and in clarity in speech was 4.02±0.673. Competency in oral presentation was higher in Persian speaking students than Azari students.

Conclusion
Considering the importance of oral presentations for nurses, it is recommended that nursing professors in AUMS and the educational system in Iran pay more attention to promote this skill in Azeri-speaking nursing students.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The present study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Ardabil University of Medical Sciences (Code: IR.ARUMS.REC.1402.030).

Funding
This paper was extracted from the master’s thesis of Tahmineh Rahmatkhah, approved by Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Ardabil University of Medical Sciences.

Authors' contributions
Data collection and initial draft preparation: Tahmineh Rahmatkhah; Supervision: Saeid Mehri; Advisors: Rajab Dashti Kalantar, Nazila Vosoghi, Alireza Mirzaei; Approval of the final manuscript: All authors.

Conflict of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.

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