Interpersonal communication skills in the general practitioners work

Abstract

Introduction: Communication is a process of sending and receiving mes­sages, signals and information, between two or more persons. Objective: To assess knowledge of successful communication skills among general practitioners, and implementation of this knowledge in regular work. Method: The research instrument was the test: 'Communication skills in the general practitioners work' with 50 questions. 124 doctors were tested. Some questions had more than one correct answer, and some questions represented com­munication problems. Results of the test were analyzed with methods of descriptive statistics, using SPSS11.0 for Windows application. Results: Test was considered as successful if correct answers were given for 30 or more questions. Questions with two correct answers were considered correct if only one correct answer was indicated. In average, correct answers were given on 39.75±2.88 questions per test, and 123 doctors passed the test successfully. Answers to questions regarding defining of communication and its principal elements (verbal and Para verbal communication, empathy, active listening, formal and non formal communication), were correct in more than 50 %. In communication problem solving answers were correct in less than 10% of cases. Only one doctor correctly solved problem of communication with unsatisfied patient. Questions regarding non verbal communication were answered correctly in 96% of cases, but in the question regarding communication problem, 71% of doctors couldn't tell the importance of nonverbal communication. Conclusion: Results of the test show that general medicine doctors are skilled in communication, but that additional development is needed.

Keywords

• communication skills
• general practitioners