Improving medical student interviewing skills.

In an attempt to identify methods of improving interviewing skills, 14 pediatric medical students (group 1) were randomly assigned to receive feedback concerning an audiovisually taped interview and to participate in a didactic session on interviewing skills. Seventeen students (group 2) had feedback sessions only, and 31 (group 3) had neither feedback nor didactic sessions. Each student was taped while interviewing a simulated mother both before and after receiving the assigned input. Group 1 improved more than group 3 in organizational abilities and more than either group 2 or group 3 in obtaining histories of present illnesses. Improvements in rapport, organization and information eliciting abilities were correlated with the amount of time taken for the interviews. Differences observed between the three groups in the pre-input interviews, which were carried out within several days of the students' becoming aware of their group assignments, stress the need of obtaining pre-input evaluations routinely in assessing medical education techniques.