title: Communication skills in palliative care: development and modification of a rating scale.
abstract: A complex rating scale has been used to evaluate the verbal communication skills of health professionals before and after training. The scale has been modified in order to decrease the useage time, to improve its accuracy and to develop a rating tool available to teachers. This paper describes the process of the modification and discusses the consequent validation of the scale.
authors.affiliation: Trent Palliative Care Centre, Sheffield, UK.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Argent
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Faulkner
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: O'Keeffe
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D006282:Health Personnel; D010166:Palliative Care; D011361:Professional Competence; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013663:Teaching