Initial assessment of communication skills of intern doctors in history-taking

Abstract

As in many other countries, in Bangladesh there is an increasing public dissatisfaction with the medical profession. In the observation of the researcher, this dissatisfaction is not due to the lack of clinical competence but due to problems of communication. A qualitative survey was done to find out the extent to which the intern doctors display communication skills. The study was conducted among 25 intern doctors of Dhaka Medical College and Hospital, Bangladesh by using three sets of research instruments. The results indicated that intern doctors were very poor in communicating with their patients during history-taking. The major incompetences observed in communication skills during history-taking were: exploring patients' psychosocial concerns, providing empathy, discussing patients' personal issues and beginning and ending interviews. Other deficit areas identified were lack of warmth towards the patient, failure to keep the patient to relevant matters and the use of poor question styles during history-taking. The identified areas of deficit in competences in the sample can help to derive a prioritized checklist to organize the course content of communication skills training for history-taking in Bangladesh.