The use of therapeutic communication contributes to nursing care quality, mainly in procedures that cause fear and anxiety in patients, such as the installation of endovenous therapy. This study aimed to identify how nurses perceive therapeutic communication during the installation of endovenous therapy, as shown in a filmed simulation. This exploratory-descriptive and comparative study was developed in a Mexican city and involved 30 clinical nurses and 12 nursing faculty. The methodological process was: Construction and validation of textual content; Filming textual content with actors and validation; Presentation of the video to nurses and faculty and application of the semistructured questionnaire to identify therapeutic communication techniques in the simulation; perception of nurse-patient communication quality; perception of similarities between care practice and simulation; and difficulties to use these techniques in daily practice. Participants perceived the interpersonal relationship shown as "good"; they identified therapeutic communication techniques, which mostly corresponded to the description of the experience and expression of thoughts and feelings; no substantial difference was found between the perceptions of educational and care personnel. The most frequent difficulty to use communicative techniques was attributed to patients' problems to establish relations.
communication; nursing care; health education
