title: Evaluating medical students' non-verbal communication during the objective structured clinical examination.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Non-verbal communication (NVC) in medical encounters is an important method of exchanging information on emotional status and contextualising the meaning of verbal communication. This study aimed to assess the impact of medical students' NVC on interview evaluations by standardised patients (SPs).
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 89 medical interviews in an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) for post-clerkship medical students were analysed. All interviews were videotaped and evaluated on 10 non-verbal behaviour items. In addition, the quality of the interview content was rated by medical faculty on 5 items and the interview was rated by SPs on 5 items. The relationships between student NVC and SP evaluation were examined by multivariate regression analyses controlling for the quality of the interview content.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Standardised patients were likely to give higher ratings when students faced them directly, used facilitative nodding when listening to their talk, looked at them equally when talking and listening, and spoke at a similar speed and voice volume to them. These effects of NVC remained significant after controlling for the quality of the interview content.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provided evidence of specific non-verbal behaviours of doctors that may have additional impacts on the patient's perception of his or her visit, independently of the interview content. Education in basic NVC should be incorporated into medical education alongside verbal communication.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. hirono-tky@umin.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hirono
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fujimori
authors.forename: Teruo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yano
mesh_terms: D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D016544:Patient Simulation; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000592:standards*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013337:Students, Medical