Abstract
BackgroundThere is a relative lack of current research on the effects of specific communication training offered at the beginning of the medical degree program. The newly developed communication training "Basics and Practice in Communication Skills" was pilot tested in 2008 and expanded in the following year at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany. The goal was to promote and improve the communicative skills of participants and show the usefulness of an early offered intervention on patient-physician communication within the medical curriculum.MethodsThe students participating in the project and a comparison group of students from the standard degree program were surveyed at the beginning and end of the courses. The survey consisted of a self-assessment of their skills as well as a standardised expert rating and an evaluation of the modules by means of a questionnaire.ResultsStudents who attended the communication skills course exhibited a considerable increase of communication skills in this newly developed training. It was also observed that students in the intervention group had a greater degree of self-assessed competence following training than the medical students in the comparison group. This finding is also reflected in the results from a standardised objective measure.ConclusionsThe empirical results of the study showed that the training enabled students to acquire specialised competence in communication through the course of a newly developed training program. These findings will be used to establish new communication training at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf.
Highlights
There is a relative lack of current research on the effects of specific communication training offered at the beginning of the medical degree program
The authors provide a comprehensive set of competencies and educational objectives for teaching communication in undergraduate medical education to support the nationwide implementation of these issues in all medical schools
Inter-rater-reliabilities for expert-rated communication skills Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) between the two advanced psychology students assessing the MAASglobal were in the substantial range for all items except emotion (ICC = .85), which showed almost perfect agreement
Summary
There is a relative lack of current research on the effects of specific communication training offered at the beginning of the medical degree program. Studies have demonstrated that physicians’ communication skills lead to greater therapy adherence [1] and overall satisfaction with care [2] among patients. Another effect frequently described in the literature is a decrease in patients’ distress and susceptibility to symptoms of depression or anxiety [3,4,5]. A decrease in health care utilisation related to physicians’ good communication practises has recently been demonstrated [6] These findings underline the importance of good communication techniques in medical consultations and statement [19]. The authors provide a comprehensive set of competencies and educational objectives for teaching communication in undergraduate medical education to support the nationwide implementation of these issues in all medical schools
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
