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Medical students' attitudes toward communication skills learning: comparison between two groups with and without
Roger Ruiz Moral1,2, Cristina García de Leonardo1,2, Fernando Caballero Martínez1,2
1Communication Skills Unit, r.ruiz.prof@ufv.es.
Advances in Medical Education and Practice
|March 13, 2019
Summary
Medical students’ attitudes toward communication skills (CS) training may decline with experience, particularly affective attitudes. Cognitive attitudes remain stable, suggesting personalized teaching methods are needed for experiential learning.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Communication Skills Training
- Student Attitudes
Background:
- Student value for communication skills (CS) impacts educational program effectiveness.
- Understanding medical students' attitudes toward CS is crucial for curriculum development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore first and fourth-year medical students' attitudes toward CS and their learning.
- To assess the influence of these attitudes on programmed experiential training.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the Communication Skills Attitudes Scale (CSAS) with 220 first and fourth-year medical students.
- Analyzed positive/negative and affective/cognitive attitude subscales toward CS learning.
Main Results:
- Fourth-year students trained in CS exhibited less positive attitudes than first-year students.
- Affective attitudes decreased in fourth-year students, while cognitive attitudes remained stable.
- Accumulated learning experiences, not sex, significantly influenced attitudes.
Conclusions:
- CS training may lead to a decline in students' overall attitudes toward communication skills.
- Cognitive attitudes remain largely unchanged, indicating a need for personalized experiential learning approaches.
- Further longitudinal studies are recommended to track attitude changes over time.
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