Effectiveness of patient-centered counseling in the development of communication skills in medical university students

The experience of using the patient-centered counseling method in the educational process to develop communicative competence among future doctors is presented.

Aim. The aim was to analyze the effectiveness of teaching 5th-year students of the School of Medicine complementary communication with patients within the framework of the international educational project FOR21 of the Erasmus+ CBHE program.

Materials and methods. 36 students of the General Medicine specialty took part in training in the technology of the best interviews with patients. The first stage of the training took place in the classroom using the «flipped» classroom technology, the Padlet visual board, and the Open Labyrinths Internet resource. At the second stage, at the Center for Simulation Technologies, the Calgary-Cambridge version of the interview with a standardized patient was used. The third stage took place in the clinic. At each stage of training, debriefing was conducted among students, including questionnaires.

Results and discussion. The debriefing showed that 100% of students demonstrated active listening; critical thinking and effective learning skills – 50% of students. 70% of students demonstrated critical selfassessment skills during communication. 40% of individuals emphasized that the “script case” and “university walls” did not allow them to fully use their newly acquired communication skills. Some fifth-year students experienced stress during an interview with a standardized patient. More than 80% of listeners rated mental stress a 7 out of 10. All 100% of participants noted the high demand for training, 40% saw their own problems in communication.

Conclusions. Was found that thanks to patient-centered interview technology, students developed the best communication skills.

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