1Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, PSG Center for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics,
2Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Peelamedu, Coimbatore-641004, Tamil Nadu, India
3Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Peelamedu, Coimbatore-641004, Tamil Nadu, India
*Email id: drsudhapsg@gmail.com
Online published on 7 December, 2013.
Communication skills are one of the essential skills for a medical graduate. It plays a vital role in patient care. However, it is not included in the regular curriculum in India.
A half day workshop on communication skills was organised for interns in a medical school. The workshop comprised role play, lectures, videos and group activity. The interns were given case scenarios on breaking bad news, history taking and counseling. The SEGUE and GATHER framework were used by peers in the group to assess the activity. Kirkpatrick's levels of learning were used to evaluate the training programme.
All the interns showed a favourable reaction to the workshop (Level 1). Participants commented that they learnt how to communicate to patients and mistakes committed while communicating to patients were identified as new learning points (Level II).
Communication skills are an essential component of medical profession. Workshops on communication skills need to be included as part of the routine curriculum early in the course for effective development of communication skills among medical graduates.
Communication Skills, Medical graduates, Kirkpatricks level, SEGUE, GATHER
