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Perceived Communication Skills Among Tertiary Care Physicians

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Abstract

Objectives

Self-perception in clinical skills, including communication skills (CS), has been found to provide insights on strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for skill improvement. The present study is aimed at exploring perceived CS among physicians working at a tertiary healthcare level.

Methods

Physicians working at a tertiary hospital based in Saudi Arabia were invited to complete a modified self-questionnaire that assesses CS. Descriptive and association studies were performed. Psychometric properties of the questionnaire were determined.

Results

Out of the 101 participating physicians, 57.2% rated their CS in the range of very good and excellent, but only 30.7% rated themselves as overall excellent. The question item with the highest mean score (score range, 1 to 5) was related to encouraging patients to ask questions (4.2 ± 0.9), while the lowest was for the item that assessed information disclosure (3.8 ± 0.8). Males rated themselves higher than females in the item related to explaining things to patients (p < 0.05), whereas physicians with non-surgical specialties rated themselves better than those with surgical specialties in the item related to expressing interest in patients (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Based on physicians’ self-rated assessment, less than the third of tertiary care physicians considered themselves as maintaining an excellent level of CS. Future studies are encouraged to examine CS through a multisystem assessment and promote the need for CS training for physicians working at a tertiary care level.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mental Health Department, Neuroscience Center, King Abdullah Medical City, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

    Ahmad S Alzahrani & Abdullah Alqahtani

  2. Neuroscience Department, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Ahmad S Alzahrani & Sayed Abdulkader

  3. College of Pharmacy, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia

    Motaz A. Alluhabi

  4. Jeddah Psychiatric Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Rashed Alqabbas

Authors
  1. Ahmad S Alzahrani
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  2. Abdullah Alqahtani
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  3. Sayed Abdulkader
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  4. Motaz A. Alluhabi
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  5. Rashed Alqabbas
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Correspondence to Ahmad S Alzahrani.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the IRB committee of King Abdullah Medical City No. 17-403.

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Alzahrani, A., Alqahtani, A., Abdulkader, S. et al. Perceived Communication Skills Among Tertiary Care Physicians. Med.Sci.Educ. 29, 771–777 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-019-00764-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-019-00764-8

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