The aim of the study was to assess the empirical model of factors determining the attitude towards acquiring communicative competences among nurses participating in the program of specialist training courses. Research was conducted using a cross-sectional study. A representative group of 1010 Polish registered nurses that took part in the postgraduate education course answered a self-report survey (three instruments: NEO-PI-R questionnaire, Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS), and Empathy Understanding Questionnaire (KRE II)) from the beginning of March to the end of May 2018, which was evaluated using path analysis. The research results conducted confirmed the soundness of the created theoretical model (χ2 = 0.278, p = 0.598, RMSEA < 0.05). It was proved that acquiring communicative competences in nurses is determined by factors such as professional experience, empathic tendency, and the intensity of agreeableness, whereby these factors are bound with each other creating a homogeneous network. The developed model demonstrated that skills can most effectively be shaped in an individual's attitude based on positive mentoring in work environment.
Keywords: communicative competences; empathy; interpersonal relations; postgraduate education; registered nurses; social skills; working environment.