Communication Skills for Medical Consultation

Abstract

Background : Communication skills are essential components of effective health care.  Medical graduates are required to master these skills.  Department of Community Medicine has been organizing a course for the 4^th year medical students to meet this challenge.  Medical students in a group of three rotated to see standardized patients in 5 stations.  One of them was acting as a physician while the others were observers.  The patients were trained to exhibit problems of psychosocial illnesses and chronic diseases.  A consultation took 10 minutes.  The remaining 10 minutes were discussion time.  The same group of students saw 3-4 real patients at a primary care unit in the following week.  Feedbacks and discussion were set to enhance learning. This paper aimed to qualitatively evaluate its effectiveness.

Results   : Students expressed that they have learned new issues in practical ways i.e.

1)  communication skill and human relation;  2)  holistic approach to health care;  3)  self-reflection and self-assessment;   4)  common illnesses at primary care;  and   5)  roles of health care providers.

Students in early groups of the fourth year felt that they were lack of confidence in their medical knowledge and had an extreme excitement.  Tutors expressed that some elements of the course should be provided to improve its effectiveness. For instance, preparation of a manual of clinical topics and recording of voices for later self analysis.

Conclusion : The course provides concrete experiences of teaching communication skills for medical students.  Further improvement  should be planned.

Key words  : Communication skill, Medical consultation.