Facilitating Rapport through Real Patient Encounters in Health Care Professional Education

Background Establishing rapport is central to any health care professional-patient encounter. Developing a positive relationship with a patient enables the health care practitioner to elicit pertinent information and make informed clinical decisions about their treatment. This consequently leads to greater patient adherence, satisfaction and ultimately outcomes. As interpersonal communication and building patient rapport is integral to patient care it is imperative that the teaching of these skills be included in undergraduate and continuing health care professional education. The objective of this narrative review was to analyse the literature pertaining to health care professionals learning and developing interpersonal communication and rapport building skills through encounters with ‘real patients’. Methods