Assessment of Communication Skills Training Program on Medical Students and Interns in a Medical College of Maharashtra, India

Abstract Introduction: The National Medical Council of India has advised to include training on soft skills like Communication with Patients in the medical undergraduate curriculum. It has been observed that poor communication leads to trust issues between the doctor and patient and doctor and communities. This causes poor utilization of health services. Aims and Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the impact of communication skills training with respect to the tribal community. Subjects and Methods: The medical undergraduate students of MBBS professional course and interns posted in the Community Medicine Department were given communication skills training, which was using Kalamazoo Consensus Statement given in Attitude Ethics Communication Module (AETCOM) given by the Medical Council of India. After 2 weeks, 1 st Assessment was carried out, and immediate onsite remedial training was conducted for poor performers of the first assessment. After 6 weeks, 2 nd assessment was conducted for all the participants. Immediately after the assessment, a refresher and remedial training was conducted. After 6 months of refresher training, a 3 rd assessment was carried out for all the participants. The comparison of scores obtained in all the three phases of assessments was done using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Results: On application of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, P value was below 0.01, which was highly statistically significant. Conclusion: Repeated and regular training of medical undergraduates and interns improves the doctor and community communication.