WHO SHOULD ASSESS MEDICAL-STUDENTS COMMUNICATION-SKILLS - THEIR ACADEMIC TEACHERS OR THEIR PATIENTS

The objective of this study was to compare the assessment of medical s tudents communication skills made by their academic teachers, with the assessment made by their role-playing 'patients'. It was a cross-sect ional study, conducted at the Department of General Practice, Universi ty of Sydney, Australia, and consisted of 519 undergraduate medical st udents. Teachers rated students' communication skills using ten specif ic criteria, each marked on a five-point Likert scale. Teachers then r ated students' overall performance using a 10-point scale. Patients ra ted students' overall performance on the same 10-point Likert scale. O nly two of the 10 criteria, as rated by the academic teachers, correla ted with the role-playing patients' overall score, and all 10 criteria accounted for only 10.1% of the variance in that score. The academic assessors' overall score accounted for only 9.7% of the variance of th e patients' overall score. The communications skills emphasized by aca demic teachers do not reflect the skills considered to be important by role-playing patients.