Impact of postgraduate training on communication skills teaching: a controlled study

Abstract

BackgroundObservation of performance followed by feedback is the key to good teaching of communication skills in clinical practice. The fact that it occurs rarely is probably due to clinical supervisors’ perceived lack of competence to identify communication skills and give effective feedback. We evaluated the impact of a faculty development programme on communication skills teaching on clinical supervisors’ ability to identify residents’ good and poor communication skills and to discuss them interactively during feedback.MethodsWe conducted a pre-post controlled study in which clinical supervisors took part to a faculty development program on teaching communication skills in clinical practice. Outcome measures were the number and type of residents’ communication skills identified by supervisors in three videotaped simulated resident-patient encounters and the number and type of communication skills discussed interactively with residents during three feedback sessions.Results48 clinical supervisors (28 intervention group; 20 control group) participated. After the intervention, the number and type of communication skills identified did not differ between both groups. There was substantial heterogeneity in the number and type of communication skills identified. However, trained participants engaged in interactive discussions with residents on a significantly higher number of communication items (effect sizes 0.53 to 1.77); communication skills items discussed interactively included both structural and patient-centered elements that were considered important to be observed by expert teachers.ConclusionsThe faculty development programme did not increase the number of communication skills recognised by supervisors but was effective in increasing the number of communication issues discussed interactively in feedback sessions. Further research should explore the respective impact of accurate identification of communication skills and effective teaching skills on achieving more effective communication skills teaching in clinical practice.

House Staff Communication Training and Patient Experience Scores

“…Direct observation of residents in real-life clinical encounters, after participation in formal training, with immediate feedback from trained coaches may help ensure that the strategies learned during training remain in place moving forward (3,24). Future formal studies using the CG-CAHPS as an outcome tool should ideally include more participants to detect improvements in subtle effect size, which may nevertheless be meaningful.…”

Is your mind set? – how are intra- and interpersonal competences dealt with in medical education? A multi-professional qualitative study

“…In medical education the teaching of personal professional competences is to date provided mostly through the teaching of single competences in preclinical courses such as e.g. communication outside the clinical context [41, 42]. The main target is the provision of skills and feedback [43].…”

Self-assessment of residents in respect of attitudes to communication

“…In this context, it is recommended that communication skills, which are accepted as the basis of forming a patient–physician relationship, are included in medical education programs in a way that will support clinical knowledge and skills training. Accordingly, communication skills are currently included in the education programs of many medical faculties throughout the world (Perron et al ., 2014).…”

“…However, such skills are still insufficiently addressed during internships and postgraduate training, despite the fact that they tend to decline unless regularly recalled and practised (Perron et al ., 2014).…”