engleski

Survey analysis of the importance of specific patient-centered communication skills

Communication skills are of major importance for front-end medical staff and are becoming an essential part of medical education. Our study of clinical communication skills is based on the model of communication competence developed by Spitzberg (1984, 1989, 2002) and work of other authors on the communication and social skills related to general communication competence. Literature on the communication and interpersonal skills in healthcare was also analyzed and skills which are commonly required of medical staff were identified. By combining skills related to general communication competence and communication skills mentioned in healthcare literature a list of communication and social skills of potential importance for interaction with patients was developed with a brief explanation of each skill. A survey was used for the evaluation of the importance of the listed skills. The respondents in the survey were members of medical staff (doctors and nurses) in a large clinic. For every skill an evaluation was performed regarding its importance to the respondents in their personal interaction with patients. The respondents were also asked to state how much they would like to be trained in each of the skills they evaluated. Conclusions are made regarding the level of importance of specific communication skills for different categories of medical staff, as well as for college and continuing education.

health communication; communication skills; doctor-patient interaction; survey; factor analysis

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