1. Hamad Medical Corporation
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The Association of Previous Experience on Evaluations of Communication Skills Training
Carma L. Bylund, PhD; Tripiti Sinha, MD; Ambika Anand, MD; Alanoud Al Marri, BDS, MSc; Walid Omer, MD; Abdelhamid Afana, PhD; Mohamed Yassin, MD; Abdullatif Al-Khal, MD
Hamad Medical Corporation
Doha, Qatar
Methods
We conducted a 2-day communication skills workshop that covered modules on seven challenging communication topics (e.g., Breaking Bad News, Discussing DNR). Instructional techniques followed international best practice and included presentations, discussions, videos, and small group role play with Standardized Patients. Role play facilitators were healthcare physicians or other providers who completed the course previously and attended facilitator training.
GMTs participated in the two days of the course with a separation of weeks to month in between. Physicians attended the two days of the course back-to-back. Online course evaluation were sent to medical trainees after each day of the course and to practicing physicians after the second day of the course. These course evaluations assessed overall satisfaction, usefulness of each module in communication with patients, and helpfulness of curricular techniques.
Background
Communication skills training (CST) courses for health care students and professionals are in their early stages in the Arabian Gulf and surrounding countries. Healthcare communication is often influenced by both culture and religion. The modest literature available suggests that physicians in the Arabian Gulf countries may benefit from some guidance on how to best communicate in challenging and culturally complex clinical environments. At Hamad Medical Corporation in Doha, Qatar, we teach a CST course to graduate medical trainees (GMTs) and practicing physicians.
Due to our multi-cultural population of doctors, we knew that previous training in communication skills would be varied. The aim of this study was to examine whether previous exposure to communication skills training affects participants’ satisfaction and usefulness perceptions of the training course.
Findings
Between February 2014-June 2016, 382 GMTs completed Day 1 of the training, and 345 completed Day 2. During the same time period, 410 physicians completed the 2-day course.
Previous Training
Previous participation in communication skills training was low for all participants. About 35% of trainees reported participating in CST in medical school, and 33% of physicians reported having previous participation CST with role play.
Satisfaction and Curriculum Ratings
Evaluation scores generally were high. On a 5-point scale, with 5 being “very satisfied,” and 1 being “very dissatisfied,” the mean satisfaction score for GMTs was 4.13 for Day 1 (SD=.76) and 4.02 for Day 2 (SD=.82). Specialists’ mean satisfaction score for the 2-day course was 4.17 (SD=.95). Across all participants, the highest ratings of usefulness were given to the modules on Breaking Bad News and Shared Decision Making. All participants found the small group role play to be the most helpful component of the course in improving their communication skills.
Association Between Previous Training and Ratings
For GMTs, previous training was associated with evaluation ratings of Day 2, but not with Day 1.
As shown in Table 1, those who did not have medical school CST were more satisfied with Day 2,
rated both small group and large group role play as more helpful, and gave the three modules
higher ratings on usefulness than those who did have medical school CST. There was no association
between experience with previous trainings and any of the course evaluations for physicians.
Discussion and Conclusion
Improving healthcare communication is an important task for graduate medical education,
particularly in the Arabian Gulf region, where CST is uncommon, and where healthcare is being
practiced in a strong multinational environment. With residents from more than 40 nationalities,
we expected that GMTs’ previous CST may be limited and certainly was not going to be standard.
We were somewhat surprised that those who did have CST in medical school gave lower evaluation
ratings for many of the items on Day 2. It is not clear whether the reason for these lower
evaluations is due to the content of Day 2 or if there is some sort of CST fatigue, where these
GMTs feel like they have received enough CST. Future research could examine more about the
content, method, and duration of training previously experienced by our residents and physicians
and how such training impacts their attitudes about communication skills training.