Assessment of Attitute of First Year Medical Undergraduate Students Towards Communication Skills Training: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Attitude, Ethics and Communication modules (AETCOM) for undergraduate medical students have been suggested by the Indian Medical Council (2015) in the new curriculum based on competencies. There is a need to assess the attitude of students towards communication skills training modules. Communication Skills Assessment Scale (CSAS) is an accepted tool for it. Aim: To assess the attitude of first year medical undergraduate students towards communication skills learning programme. Materials and methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in Department of Physiology at Government Medical College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, in the third week of November 2016. Total 60 students from first year undergraduate (MBBS) course were included in the study. The CSAS questionnaire has 26 items using five-point Likert scale with 13 positive and 13 negative statements about communication skills training labelled as Positive Assessment Scale (PAS) and Negative Assessment Scale (NAS). The scores were compared for gender groups and English medium and vernacular medium group by Independent two-tailed student's t-test. Results: Sixty students (34 females and 26 males) were present with mean age of 18.4 +/- 0.8 years. Overall, PAS was 53.5 +/- 7.8, and NAS was 32.2 +/- 6.1. Among 26 males, PAS was 52 +/- 10.7, and among 34 females it was 54.7 +/- 4.4 (p-value=0.18). NAS in males was 34.2 +/- 6.3, whereas, in females, it was 30.7 +/- 5.6 (p-value= 0.026). Conclusion: The findings indicate the acceptability of communication skills training among first year MBBS students. There is a need to utilise these positive perception among students and train them to become competent doctors with the desired communication skills.