Attitudes of Alexandria Medical Students towards Communication Skills Learning

By the end of their training, medical students should have demonstrated a proficiency in communication and acquired attitudes consistent with effective medical practice. Few studies have explored medical students' attitude within a communication skills learning and teaching context. The current study aims to identify the attitudes of medical students towards communication skills learning and to consider their relationships with students, demographic and education-related characteristics. To achieve such aim, a total of 470 medical students from Alexandria Medical School (4th and 5th year) completed the 26-item Communication Skills Attitude Scale and a personal details questionnaire satisfactorily. Univariate and multivariate analysis were used to find out The relationship between students' attitude and, some demographic and education- related characteristics. The results showed that, the attitude of medical students towards communication skills learning was significantly more positive among 5th year batch than their counterparts. In addition, students born to a father or a mother who was a doctor had a significantly lower score on the negative subscale compared to students born to parents in other occupations. Being a student in the 5th year independently predict higher scores on the positive attitude subscale. As revealed by multivariate analysis, being a student in the 5th year and having a father who is a doctor independently predict lower scores on the negative attitude subscale. It is then recommended to consider teaching communication skills in advanced years when students are exposed to clinical settings. Learning communication skills should go hand in hand with the practice in clinical setting as this will add more to its tangible value. Further longitudinal studies are recommended in this respect.