title: Training family practice and internal medicine residents to counsel patients who smoke: improvement and retention of counseling skills.
abstract: This investigation builds on an earlier study by describing the final results of a training program that teaches internal medicine and family practice residents to counsel patients to stop smoking. In this study, 198 residents participated in a three-hour training program which included small group discussion and role-playing exercises. Videotaped observations of role-playing performances were used to assess behavioral outcomes related to counseling skills for 104 residents who completed pre-, immediate post-, and long-term follow-up testing. The present findings support previous results that show the training program has a significant positive effect on physician smoking cessation counseling skills. A subsample of residents continued to exhibit improved counseling skills one year after the initial educational interventions, suggesting that these skills can be retained over time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester 01655.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Quirk
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ockene
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kristeller
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Donnelly
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Amick
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kalan
mesh_terms: D003376:Counseling / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015397:Program Evaluation; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014743:Videotape Recording