1General Practitioner Ashdown Forest Health Centre, Forest Row, East Sussex, UK, RH18
2General Practitioner, Newcastle, Tyne and Wear GLOCAL Academy, UK
3Professor, Hospital Administration, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, Division, Narayana Medical College, India
4Postgraduate Trainee, Hospital Administration Division, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, Narayana Medical College, India
5County Durham and Darlington, NHS Foundation Trust, Durham, UK
6Professor of Forensic Medicine and Principal, Narayana Medical College, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
7Professor of General Surgery, Narayana Medical College, Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India
8Department of Medical Education, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, UK
*Corresponding author email id: knaineni@nhs.net
Online published on 9 April, 2019.
“Soft skills” are now essential component of Indian medical curricula. However, little is known about Indian interns’ perceptions of importance of “soft skills” in clinical practice. The study aimed to explore interns’ perceptions of the significance of “soft skills” in clinical practice.
This was an observational, cross-sectional study in the form of a small survey of a random sample of interns at Narayana Medical College. It used a brief, structured, interviewer-administered questionnaire. Out of a cohort of 100 interns, 40 were randomly selected from the intern lists and invited to participate.
All the participants said that “soft skills” are very important for doctors in clinical practice. Most, 88% of the interns said that they had not received “soft skills” training and the 12% who said they received some training reported that it was not structured. 95% said that they would like to learn “soft skills” and 97% strongly felt that they should be included in medical training. While 27% of the interns said they felt confident in consulting with patients independently, 50% said they were not confident. Half (50%) said that they were confident in leading a team and breaking bad news.
This is the first study in India to explore interns’ perception of “soft skills” in clinical practice. Interns perceived “soft skills” as significant and said they take up opportunities to acquire competence in them. This is a small study and further large-scale, multicenter research is required to validate this study's findings.
Soft skills, Communication, Competence, Perception, Team work, Leadership, Assessment
