Consultation skills of last semester medical students in Sweden: video-recorded real-patient consultations in primary health care assessed by Calgary-Cambridge Global Consultation Rating Scale, a pilot study

Sven-Olof Andersson,Per Kristiansson,Malin André,Annika Bardel

doi:10.15694/mep.2019.000088.1

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Introduction: Doctor-patient consultation is an essential element of high quality health care. Education and training of medical students in consultation skills is important. The aim of this study was to investigate the medical students' consultation skills before graduation by assessment of the students' video recordings of consultations with real patients at primary health care centres. Methods: All students had to make a video recording of a meeting with a real patient for formative examination. 26 students participated in the study and delivered a video recording and a self-assessment. Four general practitioners assessed the video recordings by Calgary-Cambridge Global Consultation Rating Scale (CC-GCRS). Statistical testing included comparisons between groups of students and assessors using non-parametric methods. Results: The average CC-GCRS-rating was higher for female students. The students' strengths were related to relation and problem exploration. Their limitations were related to patient's perspective, providing structure and providing information. The students assessed their consultation skills higher than the assessors did, while the relative levels were similar. The distribution of rating scores across the assessors was small. Conclusion:Consultation skills were acceptable for most medical students, although there was room for improvement regarding patient centeredness skills. CC-GCRS was feasible and might be a valuable instrument to assess consultation skills for medical students at the end of their medical education.

Highlights

Doctor-patient consultation is an essential element of high quality health care
Setting At the medical school, Uppsala University, Sweden, all the students during their clinical practice during the last semester, which was at primary health care centres (PHCC), had to make a video recording of the meeting with an real patients (RP) to be shown in small groups of students with a tutor for feedback and formative examination
A back-translation of the form to English was made by a person with English as their parent tongue and we found our translated version acceptable

Summary

Introduction

Doctor-patient consultation is an essential element of high quality health care. Education and training of medical students in consultation skills is important. The aim of this study was to investigate the medical students’ consultation skills before graduation by assessment of the students’ video recordings of consultations with real patients at primary health care centres. Doctor-patient consultation is an essential element of high quality health care, improving patient satisfaction, recall, understanding, adherence, and outcome of care (Kurtz et al, 2003). Education and training of medical students in consultation skills have had increased importance over the last decades. A coherent curriculum for consultation skills training embedded in student-, patient- and community-oriented values with rehearsals every year seems to be important (Deveugele et al, 2005)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion