PREPARING FOR WORK WITH PATIENTS: EXPERIENCE OF BASIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS TRAINING WITH MEDICAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The ability to build proper communication in the field of medicine is one of the fundamental clinical competencies that every graduate of a higher medical education institution should possess. It has been proven that incorrect communication between the doctor and the patient often leads to negative consequences in diagnosis and treatment. Besides, it may be a source of conflict situations and dissatisfaction with the level of medical care. That is why the issue of communicative interaction has recently begun to be actively studied in the context of higher medical education in Ukraine. However, its applied aspects are not sufficiently developed, as it requires a certain format of classes, in which the opportunity for students’ interaction is needed to gain practical experience. At the same time, many students when start their work with patients in the clinic, have a need to possess certain communication skills, namely, how to properly start and close a conversation with a patient, communicate correctly during interviewing and physical examination, how to recognize non-verbal signals etc. The earlier students can master such skills, the more confidently they will be able to work in the clinic and the more successfully they will master more complex skills.

The purpose of the article is to familiarize with the approaches to the organization of an interactive session on basic communication skills training for students of the initial courses of study, developed at the Department of Propedeutics of Internal Medicine and Phthisiology, I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University.

The authors present the methodical instruction for an interactive training session consisting of four exercises (starting and closing a conversation with a patient, trying to provide the interlocutor with information and convincing them to follow a healthy lifestyle, as well as recognizing the nonverbal signals of the interlocutor), which include mandatory components of the interactive session, in particular, reflection. Exercises can be practiced both in a separate lesson or may be incorporated into the canvas of practical lessons as separate elements.

The approaches described by the authors of the article can be useful both for preparing students to communicate with patients and for further development of the methodical instructions on other topics of medical communication.