THE ABILITY OF FIRST-YEAR MEDICAL-STUDENTS TO CORRECTLY IDENTIFY AND DIRECTLY RESPOND TO PATIENTS OBSERVED BEHAVIORS

Purpose. To determine whether first-year medical students could correc tly identify and directly respond to patients' observed behaviors. Met hod. In January 1995, 166 first year students at the University of Ill inois College of Medicine were shown a videotape of six patient vignet tes illustrating three types of patient behaviors (anger, seduction, a nd hypochondriasis) by pairs of men and women. After each vignette the tape was stopped, and in an open-ended format the students were asked to identify each patient's behavior and to write their verbal respons e to that patient. The students were prompted with the question, ''Wha t would you say now!'' They were then asked to select their comfort le vel with each patient on a scale ranging from 1 (very comfortable) to 5 (very uncomfortable). The students' responses were analyzed with sev eral statistical tools. Results. The students correctly identified ang er in both the man and the woman over 90% of the time. Forty percent o f the students identified seductive behavior from the woman, but only 5% identified it from the man. Hypochondriacal behavior was identified 65% of the time in the woman and 49% of the time in the man. Identifi cation of behavior did not correlate with the formation of a direct re sponse. The students' gender did not predict the ability to correctly identify or directly respond to patients. However, student responses a s a whole differed significantly based on the patient's gender. Conclu sion. These findings underscore the complexity of physician-patient co mmunications and the need to address the subtleties of these interacti ons as part of the medical school curriculum.