Preliminary evaluation of 'interpreter' role plays in teaching communication skills to medical undergraduates

Rationale and objectives Multiculturalism presents linguistic obstacles to health care provision. We explored the early introduction of 'interpreter' role-play exercises in teaching medical undergraduates communication skills . The interpreter role creates a natural barrier in communication providing an active prompt for recognizing learning needs in this area. Methods Bilingual Cantonese first-year medical students (n=160) were random ly allocated to either 'Observer' or 'Interpreter' role plays at a small-gr oup introductory communication skills workshop using a quasi experimental d esign, counterbalanced across tutors. Students assessed their own skill com petence before and, together with their perceptions of the different role p lays' effectiveness, again after the workshop, using an anonymous 16 item L ikert-type scale, analysed using ANOVA and MANOVA. Results Students' assessments of their skills improved significantly follow ing the workshop (F=73.19 [1,156], P=0.0009). Students in the observer grou p reported greater changes in their scores following the workshop than did students in the interpreter group (F=4.84 [1,156], P=0.029), largely due to improvement in perceived skill (F=4.38 [1,156], P=0.038) rather than perce ived programme effectiveness (F=3.13 [1,156], P > 0.05). Subsequent MANOVA indicated no main effect of observer/interpreter conditions, indicating the se differences could be attributed to chance alone (F=1.41 [16 141], P > 0. 05). Conclusion The workshop positively influenced students' perceived communica tion skills, but the 'Interpreter' role was less effective than the 'Observ er' role in achieving this. Future studies should examine whether interpret er role plays introduced later in the medical programme are beneficial.