HOUSESTAFF SOCIAL-HISTORY KNOWLEDGE - CORRELATION WITH EVALUATION OF INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

It was hypothesized that internal medicine housestaff who inquire into their hospital patients' social histories would be rated by nurses an d attendings as having better interpersonal skills. Thirty-seven inter nal medicine housestaff were asked to answer a questionnaire regarding the social history of up to three of their hospital patients. The sco re on these questionnaires was then compared to evaluations by nurses and attendings of housestaffs' interpersonal skills. We found that nur ses' evaluations of housestaff interpersonal skills correlated with pe rformance on the social history questionnaire, while attendings' evalu ations did not Social history inquiry by housestaff may be a marker fo r housestaff humanistic and interpersonal skills.