‘Difficult Conversations with Patients’—A Modified Group Objective Structured Clinical Experience for Medical Students

Abstract

This study presents a modified Group Objective Structured Clinical Experience (GOSCE) focused on difficult conversations, in which, due to limited time and financial resources, only some students could actively participate in scenarios. We aimed to evaluate the intervention, including differences between them and observers. The intervention was organized for sixth-year medical students at a Polish medical university. The study protocol assumed a pre-post analysis of students’ attitudes and self-efficacy of communication skills and their opinions about the intervention. Complete questionnaire pairs were returned by 126 students. The pre-post analysis revealed a significant improvement in their self-efficacy levels of almost all skills as well as their affective attitudes and belief in outcomes of communication learning. The improvement was significant among both the active participants and observers. It also showed a decrease in the motivation score, significant only in females. Regardless of their roles, students had positive opinions about the course and its particular aspects. The modified GOSCE may be an enjoyable and effective learning experience for students, especially in the light of limited resources. However, changes in their motivation score suggest the necessity to increase the importance of communication learning in the curriculum.

Influence of Personal Experiences of Medical Students on Their Assessment of Delivering Bad News

“…Both observers and receivers noted that the experience of observing a physician giving a patient an unfavorable diagnosis had contributed to their positive self-assessment of their own communication skills. Other studies support the view that students' participation in the communication course as observers and as active participants leads to higher confidence [22]. Thus, one may conclude that these types of experiences in DBN are educationally valuable.…”

Objective structured clinical examination as a competency assessment tool of students’ readiness for advanced pharmacy practice experiences in South Korea: a pilot study

“…Therefore, some students might have difficulties in understanding the simulation based OSCE process and test questions. It was reported that the awareness of the simulated situation made students feel slightly unreal, where only 77% of the students speaking to the simulated patients felt like a real doctor [ 39 ]. Moreover, performance anxiety in certain students and examination unfamiliarity in both students and evaluators, probably caused relatively low performance rates in certain domains [ 40 ].…”

Potential of Volunteering in Formal and Informal Medical Education—A Theory-Driven Cross-Sectional Study with Example of the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…However, in the conducted study, it seems worrisome that according to the respondents, only 35.1% had an occasion to discuss their volunteering experiences with the medical personnel and 12.3% with academic teachers. Although 86.0% of the volunteers had an occasion to discuss their experiences with their peers, as our previous research experiences show, at least in Poland, students may place a larger value on feedback from their teachers than that from other students [ 54 ]. Therefore, it seems reasonable to recommend that the introduction of volunteering learning should be simultaneously followed by obligatory reflection sessions in the presence of a mentor (e.g., a medical teacher or staff member).…”