Perception and Attitude of Medical Students towards Communication Skills Lab and Teaching Module.

Abstract

The knowledge of proper communication skills with the patients plays a pivotal role in success of medical professionals. A practical approach would be to initiate its training at an early stage of education period of undergraduate medical students. To assess perception and attitude of medical students towards Communication Skills Lab (CSL) and teaching module in Central India. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Department of General Surgery at Index Medical College, Indore, India. Undergraduate medical students were trained as per a systematic teaching module in a well equipped 'CSL'. Feedback was obtained via Likert scale and analysed after completion of the training course of eight days. A majority of the students (96.43%) opined that the training had improved their communication with the patients. They also felt that such training should be integrated in regular teaching curriculum of our country. The training of basic communication skills can be introduced at an early stage of undergraduate medical curriculum in form of an effective, interesting and acceptable teaching module.