Using Clinical Skills Workshops to Teach Complex Assessment Skills in Women's Health

Abstract

Background: The optimal care of women patients requires special complex skills in interviewing techniques, interpersonal relations, and medical knowledge from multiple disciplines. This article describes women's health workshops on clinical skills that provide students with focused instruction and feedback. Description: Following a modified objective structured clinical examination format, students interview standardized patients, take sexual histories, give bad news, and deal with issues of domestic violence. Immediate feedback is provided to students by standardized patients and faculty members using predetermined checklists. Evaluation: Student evaluations report that the workshop contributes positively to their medical education. Preliminary studies suggest that these workshops significantly improve students' problem solving abilities as measured by objective testing methods. Conclusions: The women's health workshops appear to be effective venues to teach students new information in women's health, to reinforce and integrate preexisting knowledge, and to allow students to practice critical skills in sensitive history taking and physician-patient communication.