A new method of assessing the interpersonal skills of surgeons

The purpose of this study was to develop a behavioral approach for assessing interpersonal skills of surgeons. Ten Brown University surgery faculty were videotaped (July 87-June 88) in an outpatient setting with an actress portraying a patient with gallbladder disease. Each surgeon's taped behavior was scored at three time intervals by two behavioral scientists using the BUISE method, an interpersonal rating scale for surgeons developed by the authors, and independently scored by a third independent researcher using the Stillman scale. The correlation results demonstrated that the quality of communication competency of these surgeons varied during the three time intervals in which their behavior was evaluated. The Brown University Interpersonal Skill Evaluation (BUISE) instrument was found to be sensitive to the variation of a surgeons' interpersonal skill throughout an entire interview, whereas the Stillman scale correlated with the surgeons' behavior at the end of the interview only.