Faculty attitudes towards medical communication and their perceptions of students' communication skills training at Dalhousie University

Objectives (1) To assess the attitudes of full-time clinical faculty member s towards medical communication using the newly developed Attitudes Towards Medical Communication Scale; (2) to determine faculty members' perceptions of communications training for students and residents. Methods An anonymous self-completion survey was sent to 233 full-time clini cal faculty members. The questionnaire asked about faculty attitudes toward s medical communication, and assessed faculty members' views of student and resident training in communication. Results Faculty scored highly in the Attitudes Towards Medical Communicatio n Scale, with a mean score of 51.5 (SD 4.1) out of a possible 60. In univar iate analysis, rating of personal enjoyment of teaching, rating of the impo rtance of teaching, and having attended at least one faculty communications workshop in the previous 5 years were significantly associated with higher scale scores. When these factors were assessed using linear regression, on ly having attended a workshop and higher rating of the importance of teachi ng remained significant. Faculty assessed student training in communication s skills poorly overall. When assessing seven specific communications areas , more than 20% rated this training as poor for six of the areas for third- and fourth-year students and for five of the areas for residents. Conclusions Clinical faculty at Dalhousie have very positive attitudes towa rds medical communication, and more highly positive attitudes are found in those who have attended a communications workshop. Despite this evidence th at faculty appreciate the importance of medical communication skills, many assessed students' training in this curriculum area as poor.