Abstract
BackgroundKnowing one’s interpersonal relationship preferences can be tremendously helpful for medical students’ lives. The purpose of this study was to examine the interpersonal needs in medical students.MethodsBetween 2010 and 2015, a total of 877 students from four Korean medical schools took the Korean version of the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation – Behaviour (FIRO-B) scale. The FIRO-B results were analyzed by descriptive statistics, frequency, independent t-test, and one-way ANOVA.ResultsThe medical students’ scores for interpersonal needs were moderate overall, with the highest scores for control (M = 8.63, SD = 3.08), followed by affection (M = 8.14, SD = 4.34), and inclusion (M = 7.81, SD = 4.30). Gender differences showed in three areas: expressed control (male > female, t = 4.137, p < 0.001), wanted affection (male < female, t = −3.148, p = 0.002), and control needs (male > female, t = 2.761, p = 0.006). By school type, differences were shown in expressed control (t = 3.581, p < 0.001), wanted inclusion (t = 2.625, p = 0.009), Inclusion (t = 1.966, p = 0.050), and expressed (t = 2.077, p = 0.038); undergraduate medical college (MC) students’ needs were greater than the needs of graduate medical school (MS) students, but for wanted control, the MS students showed greater needs (t = −2.122, p = 0.034).ConclusionsThere were differences in all categories except for expressed inclusion, wanted control, and control. The FIRO-B is a useful tool for giving insight into students regarding their interpersonal orientations, which will help them to adjust to medical school life. In addition, the FIRO-B can be useful when mentoring and coaching students.
Highlights
Knowing one’s interpersonal relationship preferences can be tremendously helpful for medical students’ lives
Level of interpersonal needs The medical students' Fundamental Interpersonal Relations OrientationBehavior (FIRO-B) results are shown in Figs. 1 and 2
The FIRO-B is a useful tool for gaining insight into students’ interpersonal relationship orientations, which will help them to adjust to medical school life
Summary
Knowing one’s interpersonal relationship preferences can be tremendously helpful for medical students’ lives. There are many approaches to building good patient-doctor relationships, and many medical school curricula provide communication skills courses to excel such competencies [1,2,3]. We evaluated medical students’ interpersonal relationship orientations using the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations OrientationBehavior (FIRO-B) inventory by Schutz (1958, as cited in Young [4]). The first step in building good patient-doctor relationships is to help medical students to be aware of who they are and what kinds of interpersonal orientations. The tool we used in this study, the FIRO-B, is widely used for interpersonal relationships [4], but not in medical education. Using the keyword “FIRO-B” in all fields in PubMed Central revealed only two results related to Shutz’s assessment tool for interpersonal relationships [6], and these papers did not address medical education or medical students. Two previous studies that used the instrument in medical education can be found in the Journal of Korean Medical Education [7, 8], but these studies focused on comparing the FIRO-B
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.
