Assessing the development of communication skills in undergraduate medicalstudents

Context The teaching of clinical communication skills' teaching has become an important part of medical school curricula. Many undergraduate medical c ourses include communication skills training at various points in their cur riculum. Very few reports have been published on the development of communi cation skills over the duration of a medical undergraduate training. Aims To determine the change in communication skills between early and mid- stages of the students' 5-year curriculum, and to investigate the predictiv e and theoretical significance of knowledge and understanding of communicat ion skills in relation to observed performance. Participants Students entering as the first cohort to the new medical curri culum at Liverpool Medical School (n=207). Nine students withdrew leaving 1 98 students who completed two summative assessments in June 1997 (level 1) and November 1998 (level 2). Statistical analysis Repeated measures multivariate ANOVAS were applied to the main study data to detect any change in performance between levels 1 an d 2. Results and conclusions An improvement in communication skills was found in medical students over 17 months of their undergraduate teaching: that is f rom the level 1 to the level 2 assessment. Knowledge and understanding of c ommunication skills at initial assessment did not show the predicted associ ation with performance at level 2.