A PRELIMINARY EXPLORATION OF THE INTERACTIONAL SKILLS OF TRAINEE SURGEONS

Background: The interactional skills of 21 surgical trainees were stud ied in the areas of breaking bad news to patients and preparing patien ts for potentially threatening medical procedures. When compared to th e established guidelines for dealing with these issues, the trainees p erformed poorly. Methods: Trainees were videotaped using clinical hist ories delivered by simulated patients in simulated consulting rooms. A ll videos were scored on standard rating scales where the criteria for rating the specific interactional skills were adopted from existing g uidelines. Results: The proportion of trainees who could meet the guid elines when breaking bad news was low, The proportion of trainees who met the guidelines were: closing the the consultation (0%), provided p atient information about prognosis (43%) and treatment (38%) and when they gave support (10%). There were also low numbers of trainees who c ould meet the guidelines when they prepared patients for potentially t hreatening procedures. Ten per cent of trainees followed the guideline s when providing information, 25% could establish treatment goals, 35% could give a prognosis and 0% could deal appropriately with psychosoc ial issues or close the consultation appropriately. Conclusions: It is concluded that there is a need for further formal training in interac tional skills as part of surgical training.