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Iqbal N, Mookkappan S, Basheer A, et al. Impact of focused training on communication skills of final-year medical students in a medical school in India. Australas Med J. 2015;8(10):325-32doi: 10.4066/AMJ.2015.2509.
Iqbal, N., Mookkappan, S., Basheer, A., & Kandasamy, R. (2015). Impact of focused training on communication skills of final-year medical students in a medical school in India. The Australasian medical journal, 8(10), 325-32. https://doi.org/10.4066/AMJ.2015.2509
Iqbal, Nayyar, et al. "Impact of focused training on communication skills of final-year medical students in a medical school in India." The Australasian medical journal vol. 8,10 (2015): 325-32. doi: https://doi.org/10.4066/AMJ.2015.2509
Iqbal N, Mookkappan S, Basheer A, Kandasamy R. Impact of focused training on communication skills of final-year medical students in a medical school in India. Australas Med J. 2015 Oct 31;8(10):325-32. doi: 10.4066/AMJ.2015.2509. eCollection 2015. PMID: 26576204; PMCID: PMC4643610.
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Australas Med J. 2015 Oct 31;8(10):325-32. doi: 10.4066/AMJ.2015.2509. eCollection 2015.

Impact of focused training on communication skills of final-year medical students in a medical school in India.

The Australasian medical journal

Nayyar Iqbal, Sudhagar Mookkappan, Aneesh Basheer, Ravichandran Kandasamy

Affiliations

  1. Department of General Medicine, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, India.
  2. Department of Biostatistics, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, India.

PMID: 26576204 PMCID: PMC4643610 DOI: 10.4066/AMJ.2015.2509

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although communication skills are important for a good physician-patient relationship, Indian medical curricula give very little emphasis on training medical students in this aspect.

AIMS: To determine the change in communication skills of final-year medical students following focused training.

METHODS: This was an educational interventional study done at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India, to assess communication skills among final-year MBBS students. Fifty-two students (24 males and 28 females) participated in the study. A pre-test was conducted in the form of an objectively structured clinical examination (OSCE), followed by focused training for four hours. The same OSCE was administered as post-test. A comparison between the pre-test and post-test scores was done using Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test.

RESULTS: Ninety-six per cent of participants (50 out of 52) showed improvement in their performance after the focused training. The mean marks of the pre-test and post-test were 10.77± 3 and 18.04±2, respectively, out of a maximum mark of 20 (p<0.05). One out of 52 participants did not show any improvement, and one participant scored less in the post-test compared to the pre-test. There was no significant difference in the performance between male and female students.

CONCLUSION: Focused training can enhance the communication skills of medical students. Hence, it may be included in the curriculum of undergraduate medical teaching programmes in India.

Keywords: Communication skills; focused training; medical graduates

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