Effectiveness of an interactive workshop on communication skill

In the field of health care, care providers interact with multiple members of the health team whose backgrounds vary, thus the nature of interaction or communication is complex. It is essential that health care providers are trained for effective communication skills.

The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an interactive workshop on communication on knowledge and behavior of 20 female paramedics at a selected University in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The workshop addressed two topics namely process of communication and transactional analysis. The content of workshop and tools were validated by four experts and suggestions were incorporated. The reliability (alpha) of pretest questionnaire (23 MCQ with 4 alternatives) was 0.775. The faculty who taught the students was requested to observe the students for a month and to fill checklist on assessment of student behavior. On the sixth day, participants were administered scenario based essay items to assess their cognitive ability (analysis, application, evaluation and synthesis). This study was approved by institutional ethical committee. Administrative and participant consent were obtained.

A total of 47% of participants reported, workshop was very much useful in their personal and professional life and 52% reported, workshop improved the knowledge very much. However, there was no significant (t ₍₁₈₎ =0.137) relationship between mean pre and post test knowledge scores. The scores obtained in essay type questions revealed students inability to analyze, apply, synthesize or evaluate. The faculty rating revealed that 40% of participants need to focus on purpose of communication and improve on timely delivery of messages using appropriate form, channel/medium of communication.

Mastery over language is a factor influencing communication. The findings of this study predominantly throw light on ‘language’ as a barrier of communication.