Communication Skills of Resident Physicians in Aseer region, Saudi Arabia

Effective communication improves patient-physician relationship and the overall quality of care. The aim of this study was to evaluate communication skills of resident physicians at different health care facilities in Abha, Saudi Arabia through a crosssectional, questionnaire-based study. A total of 210 resident doctors participated, of whom 31.4% were internal medicine trainees, and 27.1% were family medicine trainees. Previous training on communication skills was reported by 74 participants (35%). The communication skills scores were nearly normally distributed with a mean score of 113.30 +/- 32.25. In comparing the skills by various socio-demographic factors, it was noted that gender and age played a significant role in specific communication skills. There was a significant difference in mean scores of younger and older physicians in domains of interpretation and clarification (p < 0.001), asking (p < 0.001), feedback (p < 0.01), punishment and reward skills (p < 0.001). In asking skills, there was a significant difference in mean scores of male and females (p < 0.001). Residents in the specialty of Internal Medicine had significantly higher scores than other specialties (CI 95% = 88.6488-102.3688; p < 0.001). Fifth-year residents had significantly higher scores than those of other levels (CI 95% = 81.3998-99.9335; p < 0.001). Residents with more than one year of experience after the basic degree had significantly higher scores than residents with lesser experience (CI 95% = 123.7650-137.6870; p < 0.001). Residents who had taken training in CME in communication skills had significantly higher scores than those who had no prior training or who had attended other methods of training (CI 95% = 121.4108-135.3320; p < 0.05). Results of this study point towards a lingering need to focus on training of physicians in effective communication and efforts should be made to include it as a core competency in medical curriculum.