A counselling skills workshop for family medicine trainees

Experience with a workshop designed to teach practical consulting, communication and counselling skills to family medicine vocational trainees is described. Responses to self-report questionnaires immediately (71 percent response rate), and one to two years after the workshop (62 percent rate), are reported. A high percentage of respondents agreed that the workshop had been effective in imparting basic counselling and communication skills, and had influenced them to change their consulting style. These changes commonly persisted at one to two year follow up.