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Competency in medical history taking-the training physicians' view
Tamara Seitz1,2, Barbara Raschauer1, Angelika S Längle2,3
1Social-Medical Center South, Vienna, Austria.
Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift
|December 21, 2018
Summary
Medical students struggle with taking complete medical histories, according to supervising physicians. Training programs need improvement in both university and hospital settings to enhance these essential communication skills.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Physician Communication Skills
- Clinical Training
Background:
- Effective physician communication is vital for patient care.
- Evaluating medical students' ability to obtain a comprehensive medical history is essential.
- Physician feedback is a key metric for assessing student competence.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate medical students' proficiency in taking a sufficient medical history.
- To identify areas for improvement in medical student communication training.
- To assess the perspectives of supervising physicians on student performance.
Main Methods:
- Interviewed 24 physicians across various medical specialties.
- Conducted a qualitative content analysis of physician reports.
- Stratified specialties based on national physician supply.
Main Results:
- Students demonstrated a lack of expertise in taking structured and complete medical histories.
- Training physicians noted a lack of student engagement during clinical rotations.
- Inadequate student supervision was identified, with only half of departments assigning fixed supervisors.
Conclusions:
- University and hospital training programs require refinement to improve medical students' communicative skills.
- Enhanced structured training is needed to address deficiencies in history-taking abilities.
- Improved supervision models are necessary to support student development.