Patients’ assessment of professionalism and communication skills of medical graduates

Abstract

BackgroundProfessionalism and communication skills constitute important components of the integral formation of physicians which has repercussion on the quality of health care and medical education. The objective of this study was to assess medical graduates’ professionalism and communication skills from the patients’ perspective and to examine its association with patients’ socio-demographic variables.MethodsThis is a hospital based cross-sectional study. It involved 315 patients and 105 medical graduates selected by convenient sampling method. A modified and validated version of the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Patient Assessment survey questionnaire was used for data collection through a face to face interview. Data processing and analysis were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 16.0. Mean, frequency distribution, and percentage of the variables were calculated. A non-parametric Kruskal Wallis test was applied to verify whether the patients’ assessment was influenced by variables such as age, gender, education, at a level of significance, p ≤ 0.05.ResultsFemale patients constituted 46% of the sample, whereas males constituted 54%. The mean age was 36 ± 16. Patients’ scoring of the graduate’s skills ranged from 3.29 to 3.83 with a mean of 3.64 on a five-point Likert scale. Items assessing the “patient involvement in decision-making” were assigned the minimum mean values, while items dealing with “establishing adequate communication with patient” assigned the maximum mean values. Patients, who were older than 45 years, gave higher scores than younger ones (p < 0.001). Patients with higher education reported much lower scores than those with lower education (p = 0.003). Patients’ gender did not show any statistically significant influence on the rating level.ConclusionGenerally patients rated the medical graduates’ professionalism and communication skills at a good level. Patients’ age and educational level were significantly associated with the rating level.

Nationwide survey of patients’ and doctors’ perceptions of what is needed in doctor - patient communication in a Southeast Asian context

“…In a similar hospital-based study among patients in Yemen, patients rated the doctors' basic communication skills as good, while higher social skills like involving patients in decision-making were considered weak [26]. Among their patients, those above 45 were grouped as 'older' and were also more accepting of the doctors' communication skills while the younger people were more demanding, similar to the results in our study.…”

“…Among their patients, those above 45 were grouped as 'older' and were also more accepting of the doctors' communication skills while the younger people were more demanding, similar to the results in our study. Unlike the patients in our study, in other study, gender played no significant role in their patients' rating of doctors' skills [26].…”

“…When investigating which parts of the Western communication model may be applicable, it is useful to explore both the patients' expectations and the doctors' willingness and capacity to meet those expectations. Gender, age, employment, setting, and time available for the consultation may also influence patients' expectations and satisfaction [10,12,19,[23][24][25][26]. Because these factors may influence the communication that we want to assess, we recorded these potentially confounding variables as well, to support interpretation of the results.…”

OSCE para Competências de Comunicação Clínica e Profissionalismo: Relato de Experiência e Meta-Avaliação

“…Entre as competências essenciais na prática clíni-ca, temos a comunicação clínica e o profissionalismo, para os quais o OSCE tem sido um método utlizado com certa frequência e com bons resultados em alguns estudos [17][18][19][20] . Entre suas aplicações, tem a capacidade de avaliar a anamnese, o exame físico e a interpretação de resultados clínicos, com destaque para a comunicação efetiva 9,13 .…”

The importance of communication that keeps at its core emotional states: Evidence from the Middle East

“…1 This has translated into a move from a paternalistic, physician-dominated approach, reliant on "top-down" presentation of information, to a more patient-centred one, concerned with mutual participation and service users' satisfaction. 1,2 In the 21 st century, medical and clinical decisions are determined by a shared decision-making process between the doctor and the patient. 1 Hence, the implications of the shift in the doctor-patient relationship have been felt not only in the application of technical knowledge, but primarily, on how information is communicated to patients.…”