Abstract
Communication Skills (CS) are essential to health workforce to conduct effective professional-patient interaction. In Iraq, majority of newly graduated health professionals are engaged in provision of direct health services. However, undergraduate curricula preparing these professionals include no distinct component to train them on CS. This study aims at assessing the status of CS among Health Professions Education (HPE) graduates of University of Duhok (UoD) and estimating the perception of their patients toward those skills. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2014. Data on communication skills was obtained, from samples of different health professionals which included: medical doctors (junior residents, nurses, dentists and pharmacists) who recently graduated from different colleges at the UoD. Also, data from was obtained, their patients, to assess their satisfaction of the professionals’ CS. For assessing core CS, a specially designed checklist was adopted from Calgary-Cambridge Guide. Also, senior clinicians were asked on CS performed by their junior residents. Results show that 88% of the senior academic staff regarded CS as “highly essential” and 66% of them were not satisfied with interns’ conduct and suggested that CS should clearly be included in the medical curricula. The basic CS were perceived by patients as either not practiced or wrongly practiced. Patients were unsatisfied with the CS of their attending HPs during observed consultation sessions. The study shows obvious lack of CS among HPE graduates of UoD with patients’ dissatisfaction of their CSs. It seems legitimate to propose that relevant training elements to be designed and incorporated within training modules are needed to realize as a core element of the curriculum of all HPE colleges at the UoD. Keywords: Communication, skills, perception, graduates, Kurdistan-Iraq. DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/73-02 Publication date: April 30 th 2020
Highlights
The role of effective communication skills (CS) has widely been documented to alter several aspects of patient’s health outcome and perception (Clever et al 2008; Montini et al 2008; Symons et al 2009; Lienard et al 2010; Boissy et all. 2016)
The assessment of communication skills (CCS) among the 30 newly graduated nurses showed that none of the 13 CCS items was “fully performed” by >50% of HP, 4 items were “partially performed” by >50% of HP and 8 out of the 13 CCS items were “not attempted” by >50% of HP observed
It reveals that 79% of patients admitted that their attending doctors had greeted them at the beginning of the session
Summary
The role of effective communication skills (CS) has widely been documented to alter several aspects of patient’s health outcome and perception (Clever et al 2008; Montini et al 2008; Symons et al 2009; Lienard et al 2010; Boissy et all. 2016). Rajab and Al-Dabbagh (2011) indicated that in Kurdistan Region, as well as in most schools of health sciences www.iiste.org in Iraq, no specific module for teaching and learning CS is adopted yet. This may be attributed to the currently implemented traditional model curriculum adopted by most of Iraqi schools (Al-Dabbagh and Al-Taee 2005.) Kurtz (2002) indicated that considerable difficulties face attempts to systematically integrate CS within current clinical training. The “Calgary- Cambridge Guide on Teaching, and Learning Communication Skills in Medicine” was used in this study (Kurtz et al 2005.) This work aims at assessing the status of CS practiced by newly graduated health professionals and working in Duhok health facilities, and, estimating the perception of their patients and their senior clinicians toward those skills
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