Effectiveness of a clinical interviewing training program for family practice residents: a randomized controlled trial.
OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated the effectiveness of a clinical interviewing training program for third-year family practice trainees and determined which other factors influence residents' training in clinical communication.


METHODS
This was a randomized, multicenter, educational trial involving 193 third-year family practice residents from eight centers in Spain. Centers were randomly assigned to two groups, one of which would undertake a communication skills training program and one of which would not. The program was resident centered, based on residents' practice experience, and provided structured feedback. The main outcome measures were residents' consultation behavior with six standardized patient encounters (three before and three after the training) as measured with the GATHA-RES rating scale by an observer blinded to group assignment of the residents.


RESULTS
The intervention group trainees displayed marginally better communication skills at the start of the study than those in the control group. At the end of the study, trainees who had received the training program did not show better communication skills than those who had not received the training program. Factors related to the training center environment, having a teacher trained in clinical interviewing, younger age, and a longer interview duration correlated with better communication skills.


CONCLUSIONS
The trial program did not appear to improve the global communication skills of trainees. This study highlights the importance of the trainee's teachers, the residency program environment, and earlier exposure to training in planning future programs to improve residents' communication skills.
Moral
Roger Ruiz
RR
Cordoba Family Medicine Training Unit,Cordoba School of Medicine, Cordoba, Spain. rruizm@papps.org
Rodriguez Salvador
Juan Jose
JJ
de Torres
Luis Perula
LP
Prados Castillejo
Jose Antonio
JA
D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D007407:Interviews as Topic