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

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.