Evaluating Simulated Consultation Videos in Teaching Patient-Centered General Practice

Abstract

Introduction In the general practice course at Copenhagen University, students are taught patient-centered consultations. The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of a new method for measuring the effect of this teaching, and of adding access to simulated consultation videos to usual teaching. Methods The university assigned 293 final-semester students to three groups: a ‘Control Group’ with usual curriculum, an 'Access Group' that watched simulated consultation video clips online and a 'Teaching Group' where the video clips were discussed in teaching sessions. The outcome was the change in students’ ability to identify patient-centered elements in a test video consultation, measured with a questionnaire before and after the course. Results An overall teaching effect was observed, which was most apparent in communication items such as "making a contract about the topic for the consultation" and "summarizing". Changes in clinical items and general issues were small. Conclusion A tool for measuring the effect of teaching general practice consultation skills combining a test video and a questionnaire is presented. Topics needing to be highlighted in teaching could be identified using the tool.

Keywords

• medical undergraduate student
• patient-centered consultation model
• assessment