Assessment Of Communication Skills Research Articles

PENERAPAN MIND MAPPING DALAM PENDEKATAN SAINTIFIK UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KEMAMPUAN KOMUNIKASI MATEMATIS SISWA DI SMPN 9 KOTA JAMBI

Students' mathematical communication skills are still unsatisfactory, the average student error shows an error in expressing daily events in the language of mathematics. This is due to a lack of student understanding of the material that has been taught, and the level of students' creativity in recording important concepts contained in the content of the subject matter is still not satisfactory, student records tend to be still boring. The purpose of this study are: (1) to describe the implementation of mind mapping in the scientific approach to improve students' mathematical communication skills, and (2) describe the results of the assessment of mathematical communication skills that occur in students after learning is done with mind mapping in the scientific approach. The type of research that the author is doing is included in classroom action research (CAR). The author uses interview, observation, test and documentation methods. As for the analysis, the author uses descriptive qualitative analysis techniques, namely in the form of qualitative data and quantitative data that the author obtained during direct observation in the field. The research findings show that the application of mind mapping in the scientific approach can improve mathematical communication skills in students of Jambi City Vocational High School 9. (1) The process of implementing mind mapping with a scientific approach to improve students' mathematical communication skills can run smoothly as planned. The application of mind mapping has provided new experiences for students and teachers and provides several benefits, the benefits of mind mapping obtained include: students become the spirit of learning, students easily remember lessons and students gain drawing experience to find the relationship between one concept and another concept and the teacher easier to explain the subject matter to students; (2) on the assessment of students 'mathematical communication skills, from quantitative data the acquisition of scores on students' mathematical communication obtained a high enough value, namely in the first cycle the average value obtained was 75.87 or around 77.2%, in the second cycle there was an increase namely 80.1 or around 87.1%.Keywords: Mind Mapping, scientific approach, and mathematical communication skills

Discriminating Features of Narrative Evaluations of Communication Skills During an OSCE

Construct: Authors examined the use of narrative comments for evaluation of student communications skills in a standardized, summative assessment (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations [OSCE]). Background: The use of narrative evaluations in workplace settings is gaining credibility as an assessment tool, but it is unknown how assessors convey judgments using narratives in high-stakes standardized assessments. The aim of this study was to explore constructs (i.e., performance dimensions), as well as linguistic strategies that assessors use to distinguish between poor and good students when writing narrative assessment comments of communication skills during an OSCE. Approach: Eighteen assessors from Qatar University were recruited to write narrative assessment comments of communication skills for 14 students completing a summative OSCE. Assessors scored overall communication performance on a 5-point scale. Narrative evaluations for the top and bottom 2 performing students for each station (based on communication scores) were analyzed for linguistic strategies and constructs that informed assessment decisions. Results: Seventy-two narrative evaluations with 662 comments were analyzed. Most comments (77%) were written without the use of politeness strategies. A further 22% of comments were hedged. Hedging was used more commonly in poor performers, compared to good performers (30% vs. 15%, respectively). Overarching constructs of confidence, adaptability, patient safety, and professionalism were key dimensions that characterized the narrative evaluations of students’ performance. Conclusions: Results contribute to our understanding regarding the utility of narrative comments for summative assessment of communication skills. Assessors’ comments could be characterized by the constructs of confidence, adaptability, patient safety, and professionalism when distinguishing between levels of student performance. Findings support the notion that judgments are arrived at by clustering sets of behaviors into overarching and meaningful constructs rather than by solely focusing on discrete behaviors. These results call for the development of better-anchored evaluation tools for communication assessment during OSCEs, constructively aligned with assessors’ map of the reality of professional practice.

Efficacy of elaborated semantic features analysis in Aphasia: a quasi-randomised controlled trial

ABSTRACTBackground: Word finding difficulty is one of the most common features of aphasia. Semantic Features Analysis (SFA) directly aims to improve word finding in people with aphasia. Evidence from systematic reviews suggests that SFA leads to positive outcomes, yet the evidence comprises single case studies and case series. There is a need to evaluate the efficacy of SFA in controlled group studies/trials.Aims: To evaluate the efficacy of Elaborated Semantic Feature Analysis (ESFA) for word finding in people with aphasia. We investigated: (a) the efficacy of ESFA versus a delayed therapy/control, (b) the efficacy of two therapy approaches – individual versus a combination of individual and group therapy.Methods and procedures: We ran a multi-centre, quasi-randomised controlled trial, nested in a larger study (Thales-Aphasia). Participants were recruited from community settings. They had to be people with aphasia due to stroke at least four months post-onset. Participants were randomized to individual vs combination vs delayed therapy/control groups. Both therapy groups had 3 h of ESFA per week for 12 weeks. Delayed therapy/control group had no intervention for 12 weeks and were then randomized to either individual or combination therapy. The primary outcome was confrontation naming. Secondary outcomes were the Boston Naming Test, Discourse, the Functional Assessment of Communication Skills for adults (ASHA–FACS), the Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life scale (SAQOL-39g), the General Health Questionnaire-12 item, and the EQ-5D.Outcomes and Results: Of the 72 participants of the Thales-Aphasia project, 58 met eligibility criteria for speech-language therapy and 39 were allocated to ESFA. The critical p-value was adjusted for multiple comparisons (.005). For the therapy versus control comparison, there was a significant main effect of time on the primary outcome (p < .001, η2p = .42) and a significant interaction effect (p = .003, η2p = .21). An interaction effect for the SAQOL-39g (p = .015, η2p = .11) and its psychosocial domain (p = .013, η2p = .12) did not remain significant after Bonferroni adjustment. For the individual versus combination ESFA comparison, there were significant main effects of time on the primary outcome (p < .001, η2p = .49), the BNT (p < .001, η2p = .29) and the ASHA-FACS (p = .001, η2p = .18). Interaction and group effects were not significant.Conclusion: Though underpowered, this study provides evidence on the efficacy of ESFA to improve word finding in aphasia, with gains similar in the two therapy approaches.

Pre-tertiary education, ethnicity, and attitudes of Asian medical undergraduates towards communication skills.

ObjectivesThis study was aimed at determining whether the pre-tertiary education system and ethnicity have any association with the attitudes of medical undergraduates towards communication skills. It also sought to determine if attitudes should have any relationship with communication skills assessment outcomes. MethodsA cross-section survey design was performed with 323 participants from two cohorts of medical undergraduates, i.e., first-year (n = 153) and second-year students (n = 170) who completed the Communication Skills Attitude Scale. Participants comprised of the main ethnic groups in Malaysia, i.e., Malays, Chinese and Indians, from different language medium pre-tertiary education backgrounds. Attitude measurements were compared with OSCE outcomes. ResultsThere was a significant difference in Negative Attitude Scale between pre-tertiary education system with attitudes towards communication skills (F (3, 319) = 7.79, p = .001), but no significant difference with Positive Attitude Scale (F (3, 319) = 0.43, p = .649). There was no significant difference between ethnicity and attitudes towards communication skills with PAS (F (2, 320) = 0.66, p = .519) and NAS (F (2, 320) = 1.24, p = .291). Students from Chinese medium education system had stronger negative attitudes with a mean score of 14.7 (n = 56, SD = 3.6) for primary school levels and 15.9 (n = 17, SD = 3.0) for secondary school levels, compared with others. There was no significant prediction of student’s attitudes towards assessments outcomes. ConclusionsPreliminary findings from the small data pool suggest indicative relationships requiring further studies with more participants and proportionate pre-tertiary education system backgrounds.

Communication Skills in Handling Hoteliers' Grievances

Communication skills in handling hoteliers’ grievances have been a great concern in hospitality industry. Hence, this descriptive research was conducted to assess the extent of communication skills of the respondents in handling grievances relative to commissive, declarative, expressive, and representative. It determined the demographic profile of the respondents in terms of age, gender, civil status, status of employment, position, and role of committee on grievances. It also determined if there was a significant difference on the respondents’ assessment of communication skills handling hoteliers’ grievances when grouped according to their profile. It was conducted to provide input to have effective communication skills in handling grievances. The researchers used descriptive research method in order to assess the communication skills in handling hoteliers’ grievances. There were no sampling techniques used in the study. The researchers limited their respondents to fifteen hoteliers and members of grievance committee. The survey questionnaire served as data gathering tool while frequency, weighted mean, and ANOVA were used to test the communication skills in handling grievances. The researchers found out that majority of the grievance committee members in the selected hotel establishments were in the age of 24-38, male, married employee with a regular permanent job. The study found out that there was no significant difference on the assessment of the respondents when they were grouped according to their profile. It further revealed communication skills of members in handling hoteliers’ grievances was highly observed. Based on the findings, the researchers proposed a course of action as input for effective communication skills in handling grievances.

The managers motives and their communication skills as

Aim of the study:The aim of the work was to identify the hierarchy of managerial motives and the assess of communication skills of managers from the Ostrołęka subregion. Material and methods: Own research carried out among 200 managers working in small and medium-sized enterprises from the Ostrołęka subregion - mazowieckie voivodeship. Among the respondents, 76.5% are men and 23.5% are women. Most of the surveyed managers had higher education (79.5). The other respondents graduated from secondary schools. The research on leadership motives was carried out using the "The scale of self-assessment of managerial motives” presented in the work by Tokarski [22]. The assessment of communication skills was carried out using the "Test for communication skills" [16]. Results:The research part presents the results of own research carried out among 200 managers working in small and medium-sized enterprises from the Ostrołęka subregion – mazowieckie voivodeship. Employment security is the dominant motif among 22.5% surveyed managers. The managerial motive, which is the amount of earnings, is the dominant motif only with 11% of respondents. The vast majority of participants (78.5%) obtained the result in the category of 75 and more, which classifies them to the group of managers who deal best with communica-tion.

Agreement between simulated patients and faculty: Assessment of communication skills during objective structured clinical examination.

Objective:Ensuring competence in communication skills amongst trainees is essential in health professions education. Involving faculty members for the same is a challenge in Obstetrics and Gynecology (OBGYN) due to their clinical commitments. The present study compares scores of OBGYN faculty, non-OBGYN faculty and simulated patients (SPs) on communication skills of postgraduate trainees during formative Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).Methods:This is a psychometric study conducted in Feburary 2017 at the Aga Khan University Medical College (AKU-MC). All thirty-two postgraduate trainees of OBGYN gave consent. Each trainee was assessed by OBGYN faculty, non-OBGYN faculty and SP on communication skills at six stations using nine-point itemized rating-scale during formative OBGYN OSCE. The scores were reviewed using descriptive statistics, reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha and inter-rater reliability was analyzed using Pearson correlation and intra-class correlation coefficient.Results:The score reliability of each of the examiners was >0.7. The mean scores showed that OBGYN faculty were most stringent while SPs were lenient examiners, however, non-OBGYN faculty scored in between. The inter-rater reliability among any two of the OBGYN, non-OBGYN and SP examiner was >0.84 using Pearson correlation and >0.9 using intra-class correlation.Conclusion:The SPs and non-OBGYN clinical faculty can also be used to assess communication and counseling skills on OBGYN OSCEs after required training as examiners.

Assessing Empathy in Anesthesia Residents with the Chinese Version of the Consultation and Relational Empathy: A Pilot Standardized Patient Program

Objectives To validate the reliability of the Chinese version of the Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) in physician-standardized patient (SP) encounter. We also tried to examine the agreement between video-based ratings and in-room ratings, as well as the agreement between the faculty ratings and SP ratings. Methods The CARE was translated into Chinese. Forty-eight anesthesia residents were recruited to make preoperative interview in SP-counter. Performance of each resident was graded by in-room raters, video raters and SP raters. Consistency between different raters was examined. Results The Chinese-CARE measure demonstrated high scale reliability with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.95 and high consistency in the in-room ratings in intraclass correlation (coefficient=0.888,P<0.001). Despite a good consistency in intraclass correlation, video ratings were significantly higher than in-room ratings (39.6±7.1vs. 24.0±10.0,P<0.001), and Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated that the pass/fail rate was significantly higher based on video ratings than based on in-room ratings (45/48vs. 22/48, P<0.001). SP ratings had a moderate consistency with in-room faculty ratings (coefficient=0.568,P<0.001), and there was no significant difference between the pass/fail rates based on the in-room ratings and SP ratings (22/48vs. 28/48, P=0.12). Conclusions The Chinese-CARE measure is reliable in the assessment of empathy during preoperative anesthesia interview. In-room and video ratings are not equivalent, while SP may provide a feasible alternative for the faculty rater in the assessment of communication skills with an appropriate measure.

Public forum by undergraduate medical students during clinical postings: A way to improve the communication skill

Introduction: Excellent communication skills are essential to the practice of medicine as good doctor–patient communication is necessary to elicit information from the patient to arrive at an accurate diagnosis. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the improvement in the communication skills of undergraduate medical students using public forum as a tool. Methodology: A total of 80 students of 5th-semester MBBS were invited to participate in public forum on the topic of “contraception.” Their communication skills were assessed using the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) assessment of communication skills tool. Each student performed four public forums over 2 months, one every fortnight. Each student delivered 15 min talk once in 2 weeks in front of a group of patients regarding the different contraceptive methods. The assessment of communication skill was done twice, i.e., they were assessed at the first and after the fourth public forum. Paired t-test was applied to assess the improvement in communication skill. Results: The mean score on RANZCOG assessment at the first public forum was 11.92 ± 3.89 and after the fourth public forum was 19.75 ± 6.13 (P

The impact of standardized patient interviews on communication skills among pre-clinical medical students in an accelerated Baccalaureate/MD program: a mixed methods study.

Objectives: To investigate whether participation in formative standardized patient interviews (SPIs) earlier in the curriculum of a 6-year accelerated BA/MD program would improve students’ communication skills, as well as to explore self-perceptions of the development of those skills. Methods: We randomly selected 23 Year 2 students to participate in an Intervention, and then purposively selected 23 matching students for a Control group. All participants underwent the usual educational experiences; however, participants in the Intervention group also experienced four video-recorded SPIs over the course of the academic year. Formative feedback was provided to the students by the standardized patients, and subsequently by faculty who viewed the videos. Participants in the Intervention group and their faculty periodically completed self-report surveys. During the first semester of Year 3, all students underwent a series of three SPI-based Clinical Performance Assessments (CPAs), assessing communication skills, professionalism, and history taking. We then compared the CPA scores of the Intervention and the Control groups. We also examined survey responses quantitatively and qualitatively to determine faculty and students’ self-perceptions. Results: The Intervention group scored significantly higher than the Control group in the total score for the three CPAs. Survey responses showed that early participation in SPIs enhanced students’ comfort level and skills in interviewing “real” patients. Conclusions: This study suggests that earlier implementation of pre-clinical SPIs provides valuable formative assessment to students on their communication and patient interviewing skills, and prepares them for future standardized and “real” patient encounters.

Teaching and Assessment of Dentist-Patient Communication Skills: A Systematic Review to Identify Best-Evidence Methods.

Dentist-patient communication skills are important aspects of contemporary oral health care, as shared decision making with patients becomes more common. The aim of this systematic review of the literature on teaching and assessment methodologies for communication skills in dental practice was to categorize those skills most relevant to dental practice and determine the best-evidence teaching and assessment methods. The systematic review was conducted using MEDLINE, EBM-Cochrane Libraries, Embase, ERIC, BIOSIS, CAB Abstracts, and PsycINFO using the OVID search engine, together with manually searching relevant journal articles. Relevant data were extracted from all included articles, and thematic analysis, categorization, and quality review of the articles was performed. Fifty articles published between 2000 and 2016 were identified as relevant to this study. Most were comparative design studies. The largest numbers were single group studies with before and after tests and cross-sectional studies. A total of 26 communication skills were identified and grouped into four major categories: generic skills, case-specific skills, time-specific skills, and emerging skills. Review of the teaching methods described in those articles showed that educators used a combination of passive and active strategies. All the assessment measures were considered to be valid and reliable. This categorization of essential dentist-patient communication skills reported in the literature may be used to assist in curriculum design along with use of tested teaching methods and validated assessment measures. The review highlights the need for more robust study designs for research in this important aspect of dental education.

Development and introduction of a communication skills module for postgraduate students of ophthalmology.

Purpose:Effective communication lies at the heart of a patient--doctor relationship. Communication skills (CS) teaching and assessment is not a part of the postgraduate (PG) curriculum. Lack of effective CS in current PG students’ results in patient distrust and dissatisfaction, conflicts, and compromised healthcare. The regulatory authorities of medical education have recognized the need to inculcate soft skills among medical graduates, one of which is CS. The purpose of this study was to assess the need for teaching CS to ophthalmology PG students and develop and introduce a module for the same.Methods:In this prospective, interventional study done at the ophthalmology department of a tertiary hospital, a validated 8 day CS workshop was conducted for 60 PG students through interactive lectures, observations, video sessions, and role plays. Feedbacks were obtained through narratives, validated Google survey, reflections and verbal method and analyzed.Results:In the needs assessment done on 27 departmental faculties, 20 faculties found poor communication to be a major reason for patient complaints. All faculties agreed that CS should be taught to medical students. Statistically significant improvement in CS awareness was noted among students after the workshop. Lack of CS training, work burden, and language were identified as main barriers to effective communication. All the students were satisfied with the workshop and wanted it to be conducted regularly.Conclusion:This study establishes that CS training is essential to improve patient satisfaction and patient-doctor relationships. Barriers to effective CS could be identified, for which possible solutions could be found.

Assessment of Communication Skills of Budding Doctors in a Tertiary Care Centre Puducherry

Assessment of Communication Skills of Budding Doctors in a Tertiary Care Centre Puducherry

Effect of word retrieval therapy on a patient with expressive aphasia: a case report

ABSTRACT To verify the effect of word retrieval therapy on a patient with expressive aphasia. A forty-seven year-old, male, with 8 years of schooling, with complaints about not saying words after two ischemic stroke on the left hemisphere, participated in this study. The Montreal-Toulouse-Language Assessment Battery (MTL-BR), Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Instrument (NEUPSILIN-Af), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Functional Assessment Communication Skills scale (ASHA-FACS) were used pre- and post-therapy. A baseline test with 50 words, 25 nouns and 25 verbs was applied to obtain data regarding naming ability. The sessions occurred twice a week, for 50 minutes. The intervention was based on a set of 25 images of nouns and verbs, in oral and written modalities during six sessions, for each category. On the three final sessions, 10 figures of nouns and 10 figures of verbs were added in sentences. In the post-therapy, the final baseline showed an increase in vocabulary of nouns and verbs. In the pos-intervention evaluation, the patient had an improvement in some tasks of MTL-BR battery, NEUPSILIN-Af tasks. Improvement in the social communication and daily planning aspects were reported in the ASHA-FACS. In conclusion, the word retrieval therapy was effective in this case, because there was an increase of the vocabulary and improvement in several linguistic, communicative and cognitive aspects.

The relationship between communication skills and social media addiction among university students

Objective: In this study the relationship communication skills and social media addiction among university students. It was examined whether communication skills and social media dependence differ according to gender. The most commonly used social media account was examined. Methods: The sample of the study consisted of 137 students at a private university in Northern Cyprus. Communication Skills Assessment Scale, Social Media Addiction Scale and Sociodemographic Information Form developed by the researchers were used. Results: A weak and inverse direction relationship was found between communication skills and social media addiction. Communication skills and social media addiction did not differ according to gender. The most commonly used social media account is Instagram. Discussion: The results were discussed in the literature. It has been suggested training of prevention for young people about increase communication skills and decrease social media addictions.

Role play - An effective tool to teach communication skills in pediatrics to medical undergraduates.

PURPOSE:Communication skills are essential for medical practice throughout the life of a doctor. Traditional undergraduate medical teaching in pediatrics focuses on teaching students with theoretical and practical knowledge of diseases, their diagnosis, and treatment modalities. This study was done to use role play as a tool to teach basic communication skills to the final-year undergraduate students in pediatrics and to assess perceptions of students and faculty for using role play to teach counseling and communication skills in pediatrics.METHODS:It was an observational, questionnaire-based study conducted in the Department of Pediatrics on the final-year medical undergraduates. Two modules for role play on common pediatric topics were designed and role play was conducted. At the end of the session, student and faculty feedback were taken by a prevalidated questionnaire with both close (using the 5-point Likert scale) and open-ended questions. In pre- and post-role play sessions, communication skills assessment scoring was done. Statistical evaluation of the collected data was then carried out using SPSS 22.RESULTS:A total of 98 final-year students participated in this study. Role play was found to be the most preferred tool (33%) for teaching communication skills to the students. Majority of the students (88.78%) and faculty (91.67%) felt that role play helped in teaching communicating skills. Comparison of pre- and post-role play scores on communication skills showed statistically significant improvement (P < 0.001).CONCLUSION:Role play can be used as an effective tool to teach communication skills to undergraduate medical students in pediatrics.

Diseño e implementación de OSCE para evaluar competencias de egreso en estudiantes de medicina en un consorcio de universidades chilenas

Outcomes-based education is a trend in medical education and its assessment is one of the main challenges. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is one of the tools used to assess clinical competencies. Although Chilean medical schools have used OSCEs for 18 years, there is a vast variability in the way these examinations are administered. To design and implement an integrated OSCE to assess clinical competencies at the end of the medical program in Chilean medical schools, aiming to reduce variability between these schools. Seven medical schools, supported by experts from the National Board of Medical Examiners, designed a 12 station OSCE to measure clinical outcomes at the end of the seventh year of medical training. Unlike traditional OSCEs, this new examination incorporated the assessment of clinical reasoning and communication skills, evaluated from patients' perspective. One hundred twenty-five volunteers took the same exam at five different venues. The internal consistency was 0.62. Following a compensatory approach, 85% of students passed the exam. Communication assessment showed poorer results than those reported in the literature. Among Chilean medical students, the assessment of clinical outcomes in a collaborative way, through a valid and reliable exam, is feasible. A consensus on how to teach and assess clinical reasoning across the medical curriculum is required. The assessment of students' communication skills requires further development.

How do Swiss medical schools prepare their students to become good communicators in their future professional careers: a questionnaire and interview study involving medical graduates, teachers and curriculum coordinators

BackgroundSince 2011, the Swiss Catalogue of Learning Objectives (SCLO) has provided the framework for assessing communication skills in the Swiss Medical Federal Licensing Examination (FLE). This study evaluates how far the communication curricula of five Swiss medical schools match the SCLO and international recommendations. It also explores their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT).MethodsA mixed method approach was used. In a first step, curriculum coordinators/key communication skills teachers and medical graduates were asked to fill out a questionnaire based on communication related objectives from the SCLO and a review of European consensus statements on communication training. Second, information was collected from all Swiss medical schools to identify which communication skills were taught in which formats and at what time points within the 6-year curricula. Finally, 3–4 curriculum coordinators/key communication skills teachers from each medical school were interviewed about their communication curriculum, using SWOT analysis.ResultsSixteen teachers/coordinators (response rate 100%) and 389 medical graduates (response rate 43%) filled out the questionnaire. Both the teachers/coordinators and the graduates considered that two thirds of the communication items listed in the questionnaire were covered in their curricula. Between sixty and two hundred structured hours were dedicated to communication, predominantly in small group and experiential formats. Assessment relied on both MCQs and OSCEs. Most of the training occurred during the first three years of medical school. Teachers felt that the need for communication skills training was now well-recognized by their institution and was taught with appropriate teaching methods. However, recruitment and training of teachers, continuity of communication skills training during clinical years, and the adoption of a common frame of reference among the five medical schools, remained a challenge.ConclusionAlthough the Swiss medical schools all offered a partly longitudinal communication skills training, with appropriate teaching methods, this study indicates that the communication skills actually taught do not fully match the SCLO or international recommendations. There was less training for complex communication skills training during the clinical years, and ensuring quality and coherence in the teaching remained a challenge.

The video cover letter: embedded assessment of oral communication skills

PurposeThis paper aims to describe the development and execution of the video cover letter exercise. This learning innovation challenges students to develop a concise, targeted marketing message using video technologies and tools.Design/methodology/approachIn the first full semester of mandatory implementation, a pre-test/post-test design using McCroskey's measure of communication apprehension (CA) examined the effects of the exercise in reducing students' levels of CA. There were 200 students in the course, of which 139 completed both the pre-test and post-test measure survey. The measure captures overall levels of CA and more specifically examines anxiety associated with oral communication in group discussions, dyads, group meetings and public speaking.FindingsPaired sample t-tests revealed that the CA was significantly reduced overall and more specifically in settings related to group discussions and public speaking. The tool provides an effective and efficient means for assessing basic oral communication skills. It also advances oral communication skills by significantly reducing levels of CA in undergraduate business students.Originality/valueOral communication skills are consistently ranked toward the top of faculty, student and recruiter lists of requisite skills for successful business graduates (Maes et al., 1997) and marketing majors more specifically (Nicholson et al., 2005). It is not surprising then that oral communication skills are also typically included as one of the most commonly assessed learning outcomes in college of business programs (Martell, 2007). Unfortunately, decreasing resources, growing class sizes and diverse course formats (e.g. online, face-to-face and blended) create ever growing challenges to effective development and assessment of oral communication skills in our marketing and business student populations.

Engaging Nursing Students in a Rural Native American Community to Facilitate Cultural Consciousness

ABSTRACTIntegrating cultural consciousness into nursing curricula is important for preparing a global nursing workforce. This article evaluated the impact of a teaching strategy designed to facilitate nursing students’ cultural consciousness beyond the classroom during a 1-week field experience within a rurally isolated Native American community. Cultural consciousness health care is a central element of health care delivery that integrates clinical knowledge, sensitivity, and cultural understanding. This study used an intrinsic single case study design bounded by 30 nursing students’ perceptions of their week-long immersion experience within a rurally isolated American Indian community. The reality of the situations they encountered did not match their expressed expectations nor their tacit assumptions. Evidence taken in situ from clinical reflections demonstrated most of the students wrestled with this mismatch, although they improved their clinical assessment, technical nursing, and intercultural communication skills. Evidence from end of course reflections demonstrated that two-thirds of the students integrated their preconceptions and their immersion experiences with cultural consciousness emerging in their reflections.