Dataset Information

Patients' assessment of professionalism and communication skills of medical graduates.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Professionalism and communication skills constitute important components of the integral formation of physicians which has repercussion on the quality of health care and medical education. The objective of this study was to assess medical graduates' professionalism and communication skills from the patients' perspective and to examine its association with patients' socio-demographic variables.

Methods

This is a hospital based cross-sectional study. It involved 315 patients and 105 medical graduates selected by convenient sampling method. A modified and validated version of the American Board of Internal Medicine's (ABIM) Patient Assessment survey questionnaire was used for data collection through a face to face interview. Data processing and analysis were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 16.0. Mean, frequency distribution, and percentage of the variables were calculated. A non-parametric Kruskal Wallis test was applied to verify whether the patients' assessment was influenced by variables such as age, gender, education, at a level of significance, p ? 0.05.

Results

Female patients constituted 46% of the sample, whereas males constituted 54%. The mean age was 36 ± 16. Patients' scoring of the graduate's skills ranged from 3.29 to 3.83 with a mean of 3.64 on a five-point Likert scale. Items assessing the "patient involvement in decision-making" were assigned the minimum mean values, while items dealing with "establishing adequate communication with patient" assigned the maximum mean values. Patients, who were older than 45 years, gave higher scores than younger ones (p < 0.001). Patients with higher education reported much lower scores than those with lower education (p = 0.003). Patients' gender did not show any statistically significant influence on the rating level.

Conclusion

Generally patients rated the medical graduates' professionalism and communication skills at a good level. Patients' age and educational level were significantly associated with the rating level.

SUBMITTER: Abadel FT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3923249 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Patients' assessment of professionalism and communication skills of medical graduates.

Abadel Fatima T FT Hattab Abdulla S AS

BMC medical education 20140211

<h4>Background</h4>Professionalism and communication skills constitute important components of the integral formation of physicians which has repercussion on the quality of health care and medical education. The objective of this study was to assess medical graduates' professionalism and communication skills from the patients' perspective and to examine its association with patients' socio-demographic variables.<h4>Methods</h4>This is a hospital based cross-sectional study. It involved 315 patie ...[more]

PMID: 24517316

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Across the world, local standards provide doctors with a backbone of professional attitudes that must be embodied across their practice. However, educational approaches to develop attitudes are undermined by the lack of a theoretical framework. Our research explored the ways in which the General Medical Council's (GMC) programme of preventative educational workshops (the Duties of a Doctor programme) attempted to influence doctors' professional attitudes and examined how persuasive communication theory can advance understandings of professionalism education. METHODS:This qualitative study comprised 15 ethnographic observations of the GMC's programme of preventative educational workshops at seven locations across England, as well as qualitative interviews with 55 postgraduate doctors ranging in experience from junior trainees to senior consultants. The sample was purposefully chosen to include various geographic locations, different programme facilitators and doctors, who varied by seniority. Data collection occurred between March to December 2017. Thematic analysis was undertaken inductively, with meaning flowing from the data, and deductively, guided by persuasive communication theory. RESULTS:The source (educator); the message (content); and the audience (participants) were revealed as key influences on the persuasiveness of the intervention. Educators established a high degree of credibility amongst doctors and worked to build rapport. Their message was persuasive, in that it drew on rational and emotional communicative techniques and made use of both statistical and narrative evidence. Importantly, the workshops were interactive, which allowed doctors to engage with the message and thus increased its persuasiveness. CONCLUSIONS:This study extends the literature by providing a theoretically-informed understanding of an educational intervention aimed at promoting professionalism, examining it through the lens of persuasive communication. Within the context of interactive programmes that allow doctors to discuss real life examples of professional dilemmas, educators can impact on doctors' professional attitudes by drawing on persuasive communication techniques to enhance their credibility to demonstrate expertise, by building rapport and by making use of rational and emotional appeals.

Project description:Objectives: Training communication skills has come to be recognized as a vital aspect of medical school education. A medical communication course based on the COMSKIL Communication Skills Training (CST) Program was developed, integrated into the core curriculum, and evaluated at the Leipzig University Medical School. Methods: Between October 2016 and July 2017, 312 medical students (mean age 21.80 years; 62% male) participated in the medical communication course. Each course unit was evaluated via questionnaires specifically designed to address the theoretical and practical content of the curriculum. The items correspond to the material covered in each course unit. Students responded using a 5-point-Likert scale (1="not at all helpful", 5="extremely helpful") to rate the degree to which the course helped them learn about the subject matter and train the skills covered in the curriculum. Results: The average score for the first part of the course (theoretical foundations) was M=3.69 (SD=0.35). The second part received a similar rating (M=3.84; SD=0.73). The role play exercises with actor-patients received a score of M=4.27 (SD=0.62). In an overall evaluation at the end of the course, students rated the administration of the course (setting, etc), knowledge gained, and skills trained with a score of M=4.11 (SD=0.66). The role play exercises received an overall score of M=4.36 (SD=0.61). Conclusion: A new curriculum for teaching medical students patient-physician communication skills based on the COMSKIL CST program was established at the University of Leipzig. The goal of this course is to teach students about the kinds of communication scenarios they will encounter in their future working lives as care providers and equip them with the fundamental communication techniques and skills they need to successfully handle those situations. A formal evaluation of the program resulted in satisfactory findings, indicating that it is well suited for use in medical universities.

Dataset Information

Patients' assessment of professionalism and communication skills of medical graduates.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Patients' assessment of professionalism and communication skills of medical graduates.

Similar Datasets

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