Purpose: The purpose of the pilot study was to pilot pre-licensure student nurse experiences of conducting psychosocial vital signs (PVS) in the first semester of their nursing program. A secondary purpose was to determine if use of the PVS had a significant effect on students’ therapeutic communication and ability to include questions related to psychosocial spiritual care in their assessments.

Design: This was a mixed methods research design. 

Methods: Pre and post survey data was collected via Qualtrics using the Global Interprofessional Therapeutic Communication Scale (Campbell & Arendes, 2016) and the Spirituality and Spirituality Care Rating Scale (McSherry et al, 2002) and qualitative questions.                                                                   

Findings: Merging of quantitative and qualitative results supported that many novice nursing students in their first semester of nursing school made significant gains in therapeutic communication skills, and experienced their interactions with clients as being more holistic, with enhanced communication, and inclusive of psychosocial/spiritual aspects of health that “often get missed” with use of PVS. Most students perceived they had good spiritual care skills, and rated their ability to provide spiritual care at a comparatively high level from pre- to posttest with no significant changes from pretest to posttest. 47% of students agreed that the PVS should be taught in the first semester of the nursing program, 38% others thought the PVS should be taught after the first semester, and 8% were undecided.