Interactional skills of students from traditional and non-traditional medical schools before and after alcohol education

Objective To compare alcohol-related intervention and general interactional skills performance of medical students from a traditional (Sydney) and a n on-traditional (Newcastle) medical school, before and after participation i n an alcohol education programme about brief intervention. Design In two controlled trials, students received either a didactic alcoho l education programme or didactic input plus skills-based training. Prior t o and after training, all students completed videotaped interviews with sim ulated patients. Setting The Faculties of Medicine at the University of Newcastle and the Un iversity of Sydney, Australia. Subjects Fifth-year medical students (n=154). Results Both alcohol-related intervention and general interactional skills scores of the Newcastle students were significantly higher than those of th e Sydney students at pre-test but not after training. Although alcohol-rela ted interactional skills scores improved after training at both universitie s, they did not reach a satisfactory level. The educational approach used h ad no effect on post-test scores at either university. Conclusions Significant baseline differences in interactional skills scores favouring non-traditional over traditional students were no longer evident after both groups had been involved in an alcohol education programme. Fur ther research is required to develop more effective alcohol intervention tr aining methods.