Assessment of labor room communication skills among postgraduate students of obstetrics and gynecology

ABSTRACT

Background: “Communication with patients” is an important skill needed for every physician in their clinical practice.  These soft skills are required in dealing with patients at every step which include history taking from the patients, explaining them the diagnosis, the prognosis of the disease with associated complications. Dealing with empathy, taking informed consent, explaining the operative procedure and the complications associated with surgery, the art of breaking bad news are the mandatory skills for a good clinician. Labouring women like other patients also require special attention and empathy. So, the residents working in labor room need commitment to develop these soft skills in order to improve the labor room experience of expectant mothers. Objective of this study was to analyse role of a formal training in labor room communication skills among post graduate students of the department of obstetrics and gynecology.Methods: Faculty and students’ sensitization was done after approval from institutional ‘ethics committee’ for conducting this study. Pre-workshop assessment of residents for communication skills attitude and effective communication was done through ‘communication skill attitude scale’ (CSAS) and ‘GAP-KALAMAZOO scale’. Workshop for communication skills on the framework of Calgary Cambridge patient interview model and online teaching of students through what’s app videos, role-play demonstrations was followed by reassessment of the residents through above used scales.Results: Results depicted both improvements in attitude and effective communication skills among residents. 100% of the students were convinced and opined that good communication skills necessary for perfect clinical practice.Conclusions: The skill to communicate with patients is a fine art and needs to be mastered to be a good clinician. A formal training in effective communication skills is absolutely necessary to bring professionalism in medical practice.