A Training Program in Working Alliance Communication Skills

The current paper presents the results from two studies. The first study examined the effectiveness of a training program designed to enhance medical residents' working alliance communication skills. The second study surveyed patients to examine if the resident training program resulted in significantly improved adherence and satisfaction for their patients. The first study used an experimental design, and 104 residents were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group received working alliance training and the other served as a control and received no training. In the second study, after the training was completed, we surveyed one patient treated by each of the residents who participated in the first study to assess differences by resident group on patient self-reported adherence and satisfaction. In all, 68 patients participated and these patients were blind to whether the resident had participated in the training. For the first study, post-test data for the two groups showed that residents in the training group reported higher working alliance skills than residents in the control group. For the second study, patients cared for by residents who participated in the training reported better adherence and higher satisfaction with treatment than patients of residents in the control group. Thus, the training program appears to enhance residents' working alliance communication skills and is related to self-reported improvement in patient adherence and satisfaction. Further research is warranted to better understand these findings.