Faculty attitudes towards medical communication and their perceptions of students' communication skills training at Dalhousie University.

摘要

SETTING: Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. OBJECTIVES: (1) To assess the attitudes of full-time clinical faculty members towards medical communication using the newly developed Attitudes Towards Medical Communication Scale; (2) to determine faculty members' perceptions of communications training for students and residents. METHODS: An anonymous self-completion survey was sent to 233 full-time clinical faculty members. The questionnaire asked about faculty attitudes towards medical communication, and assessed faculty members' views of student and resident training in communication. RESULTS: Faculty scored highly in the Attitudes Towards Medical Communication Scale, with a mean score of 51.5 (SD 4.1) out of a possible 60. In univariate analysis, rating of personal enjoyment of teaching, rating of the importance of teaching, and having attended at least one faculty communications workshop in the previous 5 years were significantly associated with higher scale scores. When these factors were assessed using linear regression, only having attended a workshop and higher rating of the importance of teaching remained significant. Faculty assessed student training in communications skills poorly overall. When assessing seven specific communications areas, more than 20% rated this training as poor for six of the areas for third- and fourth-year students and for five of the areas for residents. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical faculty at Dalhousie have very positive attitudes towards medical communication, and more highly positive attitudes are found in those who have attended a communications workshop. Despite this evidence that faculty appreciate the importance of medical communication skills, many assessed students' training in this curriculum area as poor.