The Assessment of Undergraduate Curriculum of Communication Skills Evaluated by Performance Measurement Using Actual Outpatient Satisfaction

OBJECTIVE To evaluate an undergraduate curriculum of communication skills by measuring satisfaction of outpatients whom final year students had examined. METHODS Cross‐sectional surveys were conducted in General Medicine Clinic (GMC) of Saga Medical School (SMS) Hospital in 1999 and 2001. After the clinical clerkship in wards in fifth year, final year students experienced the two‐week GMC clerkship, including seven hours of small group lecture in 1999, but partly converted into eight hours of small group discussion with a tutor in 2001. Six items in American Board of Internal Medicine Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire were selected as a validated instrument and incorporated into repeated measures ANOVA. RESULTS A total of 177 students were evaluated by 688 outpatients. Overall average score was 3.49+/‐0.82. Average score in 2001 was significantly higher than that in 1999 (p<0.001; 3.58+/‐0.76 vs 3.36+/‐0.87). The scores of “encouraging and answering questions” and “clear explanations” items were significantly lower than those of other items (3.21+/‐0.98 and 3.37+/‐0.92; Least Significant Difference). The interaction between gender and years of curricula (1999 and 2001) was significant (p<0.001); female students showed remarkable improvement from 1999 to 2001 (Cohen's delta = 0.67). CONCLUSIONS Patient satisfaction scores indicated that undergraduate curriculum for communication skills in SMS improved from 1999 to 2001. Newly implemented small group discussion was a possible reason for the improvement, especially in female students. Further training for the skills of encouraging and answering questions and clear explanations will be the next step.