Establishment of communication skills and techniwues for handling patients in the resident training

• Project/Area Number: 10672133
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Medical sociology
• Research Institution: Kurume University
• Principal Investigator: USHIJIMA Kosuke School of medicine, Reseach Associate, 医学部, 助手 (00213413)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): OGHO Yoshio School of medicine, Assistant Professor, 医学部, 講師 (10194531) ; YOSHIDA Ichiro School of medicine, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (20182751) ; ITO Yuhei School of medicine, Professor, 医学部, 教授 (90203182)
• Project Period (FY): 1998 – 2001
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2001)
• Budget Amount: ¥2,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,900,000); Fiscal Year 2001: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000); Fiscal Year 2000: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000); Fiscal Year 1999: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000); Fiscal Year 1998: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
• Keywords: RESIDENT EDUCATION / COMMUNICATION SKILL / TECHNIQUE FOR HANDLING PATIENT / TRAINING CURRICULUM / RESIDENT / GENERAL PEDIATRICS / コミュニケーション抜法

Research Abstract

We sent out a questionnaire of the resident training to the Pediatrics departments of medical universities and received responses from 76.8%. Among the departments, 67.2% offered a training program on the attitude of physicians, such as meeting patients or communication skills. At most departments (95.1%), training was given for 2 to 3 hours (35.7%) before or immediately after internship. Training mainly involved lectures (87.8%). Using the survey results, we drew up a curriculum that focused on emotional education, the attitude of the physician, how to meet patients, etc., and conducted a pilot training program. This training clearly revealed a lack of knowledge (especially basic), rather than technical skills. Another survey was conducted among students in the fifth grade of medical school. This survey investigated whether they had confidence in their skills with respect to meeting, communicating with, and questioning patients. Only 11% replied in the affirmative. When asked if they had experienced any difficulties in meeting and communicating with patients during training, 75% replied yes. When asked what kind of training they thought would be useful, the answers were as follows : ward rounds (86%), standard patients (65%), and roleplaying (47%).
A revised training program incorporating these points was drawn up. Some of the favorable comments from interns were as follows : I could confirm necessary knowledge and techniques for meeting and communicating with patients. I could objectively evaluate my ability before and after training. Mutual evaluation with the training staff ana co-medical staff was beneficial. Further revisions/improvements to the techniques and quality of the training program, including pregraduation training, will be made where necessary.
In recent years, training programs such as clinical clerkship or OSCE have been provided. Various materials related to such training programs have been published, and we utilized selected materials when drawing up our training program.