title: Impact of focused training on communication skills of final-year medical students in a medical school in India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although communication skills are important for a good physician-patient relationship, Indian medical curricula give very little emphasis on training medical students in this aspect.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the change in communication skills of final-year medical students following focused training.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was an educational interventional study done at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, a tertiary care teaching hospital in South India, to assess communication skills among final-year MBBS students. Fifty-two students (24 males and 28 females) participated in the study. A pre-test was conducted in the form of an objectively structured clinical examination (OSCE), followed by focused training for four hours. The same OSCE was administered as post-test. A comparison between the pre-test and post-test scores was done using Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ninety-six per cent of participants (50 out of 52) showed improvement in their performance after the focused training. The mean marks of the pre-test and post-test were 10.77± 3 and 18.04±2, respectively, out of a maximum mark of 20 (p<0.05). One out of 52 participants did not show any improvement, and one participant scored less in the post-test compared to the pre-test. There was no significant difference in the performance between male and female students.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Focused training can enhance the communication skills of medical students. Hence, it may be included in the curriculum of undergraduate medical teaching programmes in India.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, India.
authors.forename: Nayyar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Iqbal
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, India.
authors.forename: Sudhagar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mookkappan
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, India.
authors.forename: Aneesh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Basheer
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, India.
authors.forename: Ravichandran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kandasamy
keywords: Communication skills; focused training; medical graduates