Teaching communications skills to medical students using a reflective teaching method and access to online video cases

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Introduction In our family medicine course the students work eight days in a general practice clinic, video-record their consultations, and analyze them in small group sessions at the university. The aim of this study is to find a way to evaluate the course after adding online material. Material and Methods On the first and last day of the course all students watch the same test-video of a consultation. After watching the video they fill in a questionnaire, designed to structure the analysis. Outcome is the change in answers from the first questionnaire (A) to the last one (B).For the on-line teaching we use 16 short video-cases of consultations accompanied by on-line questions. The control group has the usual course, Results In seven out of ten items there are significant changes in the answers in the control group. The tendency is the same in the intervention group but not significant. Apart from one item the two groups finished at the same answers. Conclusion Teaching consultation skills to medical students using a reflective teaching method is effective. Adding access to video cases has a minor effect. Discussion Further studies into how to use e-learning material in teaching communication skills is needed.