Patient-Centered Attitudes and Communication Skills in Medical Students after Clerkship

Abstract

Purpose: Patient-centered communication is known to improve patient satisfaction, compliance, doctor-patient relationship, and health outcomes. The aim of this study is to evaluate patient-centered communication skills and attitudes in medical students after their clerkship. Method: To evaluate their communication skills, OSCE was performed on 114 fourth-year medical students who had completed their clerkship. After OSCE, we used structured questionnaires to survey the subjects in assessing attitudes toward communication skill learning and patient-centeredness. Results: The accomplished frequency of patient-centered communication items were as follows: allow patient’s narrative thread (), open-to-closed-ended questions (), discuss psychosocial and emotional factors (), elicit patient’s concerns and perspectives (), discuss how health problem affects patient’s daily life (), express empathy (), negotiate plan of action with patient (), and ask whether patient has further issues to discuss (). The students who did [medical service as extracurricular activity??????????] and were confident with their communication skills performed better patient-centered interviews. There was no significant relationship between medical students’ patient-centered attitudes and patient-centered OSCE scores. Conclusion: Having completed their clerkship, medical students were still unable to perform a good patient-centered interview. Current medical curriculum should teach medical students how to communicate in a patient-centered manner. The education method should focus on behavior change initiatives.