Interviewing skill: the effects of ultra-brief training for general practitioners. A preliminary report

Abstract

Concepts of interviewing skill and of appropriate training and evaluation are briefly reviewed. It is hypothesized that if goals and skills relevant to a specific clinical interview can be identified and modelled in advance then even very brief training can improve outcome. An experiment is described in which three randomly selected general practitioners conducted, separately, test interviews with the same role played 'patient'. These interviews were repeated after a 'goal focusing' exercise and again after a modelling and instruction exercise. All interviews were telerecorded and subsequently blindly rated for impact on the 'patient'. The results suggest powerful training effects. The drawbacks of the study, such as lack of controls, are discussed. The similarity of evaluation raters who were 'behaviour' orientated and those who were 'psycho-dynamics' orientated is noted and it is suggested that agreed concepts of effective interviewing may be within reach.

Lectures and skills workshops as teaching formats in a history-taking skills course for medical students

“…Experimental group students’ significantly increased ability to interview patients effectively after workshop training, compared with control students, reflects the consistent finding in educational and training literature that active learning formats (such as role‐plays and case discussions) are the most effective learning situations (Bird & Lindley 1979; Engler et al 1981). In addition, students have the opportunity to see and evaluate their own interview tapes and receive constructive feedback on how to improve their consulting style.…”

“…Similarly, group discussions on consulting skills for medical students are favourably received and judged to be beneficial (Winefield 1982). On the other hand, medical students and practitioners who participate in active learning formats (such as practical skills workshops, utilizing role‐plays and videotape analysis of their own interactions) report these strategies to be far more useful than lectures alone and have been independently evaluated as having higher order consulting skills than students not given such training strategies (Rutter & Maguire 1976; Bird & Lindley 1979; Engler et al 1981).…”

Videotapedvstraditional lectures for medical students

“…Research of TV as a tool for medical education is relatively scanty. CCTV has been used to review complex motor skills in surgery and anaesthesiology (Goldman, Saltzman & Rosemond 1972; Ravin, 1974), to improve communication skills in undergraduate education (Knox, et al , 1979), to review pathologists’ presentation skills (Paegle & Kiefer, 1976), for continuing medical education (Denne et al , 1972; Neu & Howrey, 1975) and improvement of interviewing skills (Bird & Lindley, 1979). The present study was devised to compare the teaching efficiency of a ‘live’ lecture format to a videotaped lecture.…”

Teaching communication and stress management skills to junior physicians dealing with cancer patients: a Belgian Interuniversity Curriculum

“…To be effective, communication and stress management skills training programs have to be composed of learnercentered methods [35,36] including a cognitive, a behavioral, and an affective approach [10,[37][38][39][40][41]. The cognitive approach aims to improve physicians' knowledge about effective communication skills (e.g., using open directive questions, clarification of psychological aspects, and empathy) [28] and stress management skills (e.g., selfmonitoring of stress intensity, relaxation techniques, cognitive coping skills, and self-management skills such as time management) [40][41][42][43][44][45][46].…”