Abstract
Effective doctor-patient communication is essential for delivering high quality patient care and building harmonious doctor-patient relationship. However, little is known about student’s assessment of doctor-patient relationship and their attitudes towards their own communication skills and participating in communication skills courses. The aim of the present study was to identify these assessment and attitudes prior to commencing such a course. We conducted a survey using a self-designed questionnaire on 363 undergraduate medical students in an anonymous way. More than half of the undergraduate medical students (64.7%) thought the doctor-patient relationship is relatively harmonious and 75.5% felt that good doctor-patient communication skills could effectively reduce the incidence of current medical disputes. 81.3% of medical students believed that their communication skills are limited, and are eager to be trained, but only 33.2% of the students agreed that communication curriculum should become a compulsory course. 53.7% of the students favored interactive lectures over the didactic formal lectures. Based on the survey, we feel that it is necessary to setup the doctor-patient communication curriculum in medical institutions to enhance the communication ability of medical students. The preferred teaching style is through interactive lectures with opportunities for discussion and observation.
Highlights
In spite of the miraculous advance of medicine during the past century, it does not come with a concomitant increase in the public’s satisfaction with the medical profession [1, 2]
From the survey results, 75.5% of the students thought good communication skills could effectively reduce the incidence of medical disputes, 22.7% felt it is helpful to a certain extent, while under 2% (1.75%) hold the opposite attitude that it exerts no influence
Accreditation bodies for undergraduate medical education have begun to recommend the incorporation of learning about the doctor-patient communication skills into medical school curricula
Summary
In spite of the miraculous advance of medicine during the past century, it does not come with a concomitant increase in the public’s satisfaction with the medical profession [1, 2]. Some patients in China take it for granted that once they pay the money, they should be cured.
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