Teaching the medical interview: methods and key learning issues in a faculty development course.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare's (AACH) Faculty Development Course on Teaching the Medical Interview and report a single year's outcomes.

DESIGN

We delivered a Faculty Development course on Teaching the Medical Interview whose theme was relationship-centered care to a national and international audience in 1999. Participants completed a retrospective pre-post assessment of their perceived confidence in performing interview, clinical, teaching, and self-awareness skills.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

A total of 79 participants in the 17th annual AACH national faculty development course at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in June 1999.

INTERVENTION

A 5-day course utilized the principles of learner-centered learning to teach a national and international cohort of medical school faculty about teaching the medical interview.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

The course fostered individualized, self-directed learning for participants, under the guidance of AACH faculty. Teaching methods included a plenary session, small groups, workshops, and project groups all designed to aid in the achievement of individual learning goals. Course outcomes of retrospective self-assessed confidence in interview, clinical, teaching, self-awareness, and control variables were measured using a 7-point Likert scale. Participants reported improved confidence in interview, clinical, teaching, and self-awareness variables. After controlling for desirability bias as measured by control variables, only teaching and self-awareness mean change scores were statistically significant (p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

The AACH Faculty Development course on Teaching the Medical Interview utilized learner-centered teaching methods important to insure learning with experienced course participants. Perceived teaching and self-awareness skills changed the most when compared to other skills.