The Liverpool brief assessment system for communication skills in the making of doctors.
The teaching of clinical communication skills is gaining importance in medical schools. There is a need to design feasible assessments that are credible to faculty, students and the profession.


OBJECTIVE
To design, and assess the reliability and validity of a new communication skills assessment system (the Liverpool Communication Skills Assessment Scale-LCSAS, and the Global Simulated Patient Rating Scale-GSPRS) for employment in OSCEs.


METHODS
The first three annual intakes of students to the new medical curriculum at Liverpool Medical School (n = 600). Two further sub samples of 1st year (n = 60) and 2nd year students (n = 80) were included for further validation purposes in separate studies.


METHODS
Intra class correlation coefficients and generalisability coefficients were employed to assess reliability of the LCSAS and GSPRS. Validity was tested by examining predicted relationships using pearson product moment correlation coefficients.


CONCLUSIONS
The LCSAS and GSPRS showed reasonable evidence for their reliability and validity although further work is recommended.
Humphris
G M
GM
Department of Clinical Psychology, Whelan Building, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GB, UK. cpsy1@liverpool.ac.uk)
Kaney
S
S
D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D006113:United Kingdom