Does Practicing Communication Skills with Standardized Patients or Completion of Elective Course of Communication Skills Affect the Scores of Clinical Performance Examination?

Abstract

Purpose: Communication skills are considered as one of the essential requirements in medical education, and the training often involves exercising medical interviews with standardized patients(SP) or role play. This study investigated the helpfulness of the communication skills training programs for students’ performance on the clinical performance examination (CPX). Methods: Fourth-year students who have taken one of two communication skills programs(exercising communication skills with SP or elective communication skill course with role play) completed a questionnaire on their evaluation of the helpfulness of communication skills programs immediately after finishing the CPX. Then, the programs were objectively assessed by comparing all fourth-year students’ CPX scores between program participants and non-participants. Results: About 70% of participants answered that the programs were helpful to perform clinical clerkship and CPX. However, there was no difference in either the total CPX score or 2 categorical scores(integrated clinical encounter, communication and interpersonal skill) between program participants and non-participants. Conclusion: Although the students felt that the communication skills programs were helpful to their clinical activities, this study failed to find objective evidence of any effect of the programs on the CPX results. Communication skills training should be continued during clinical clerkship to maintain or enhance the skills, and it is necessary to introduce more effective methods for precise evaluation of students’ communication skills.