Assessing communication skills for medical interviews in a postgraduate clinical training course at Hiroshima...

The study was conducted to investigate and clarify the effectiveness of our method of teaching communication and interview skills for medical interviews. Subjects were 18 first-year residents, enrolled in a postgraduate clinical training course at Hiroshima University Dental Hospital. Subjects underwent two objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs), and the results of instructor and resident assessments of various elements dealing with necessary communication skills for conducting medical interviews were analysed. A statistically significant correlation between assessments of instructors and residents was observed in one element: confirming patient identity and introducing self (r = 0.812, p < 0.001) in the first interview. However, a statistically significant correlation between assessments of instructors and residents was observed in four elements in the second interview: greeting the patient (r = 0.548, p < 0.05), maintaining physical distance (r = 0.582, p < 0.05), showing empathy (r = 0.601, p < 0.05), summarizing and reconfirming patient complaints (r = 0.628, p < 0.01). Total scores given by instructors in the second OSCE were higher than those in the first OSCE (p < 0.001). The correlation coefficients of the total score in the first and second interviews were r = 0.020 and 0.679 (p < 0.01), respectively. These results may suggest the educational effectiveness of OSCE on the acquisition of communication skills for medical interviews. However, the results of resident self-assessments reveal that OSCE should be performed at least twice in order for residents to acquire the necessary communication skills for medical interviews.