The impact of training communication skills on dental student's performance

Objectives: Requirements on implementation of Dental Education advancement pertain to communicative aspects. Following the guidelines of the Association of Dental-Education in Europe and the American Dental-Education Association communication skills must be part of the competencies for dentists. Thus training of dental students should include defined learning objectives and an educational concept with a central emphasis on communication skills. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of such a communication training module on interaction of students and patients.

Methods: 58 undergraduate students from the University of Heidelberg were included in this randomized controlled study before their first contact with patients. The 29 students of the intervention group (group I) were trained in communication skills with standardized patients in terms of four lessons. 29 Students (group II) attended four traditional lectures. Self-assessment of communication skills was assessed before the beginning of the courses and after it. The Wilcoxon signed rank test for matched pairs was used to find differences between the pre- and post-course situation. Additionally, both the performance during examination and patient satisfaction were assessed. The Mann-Whitney-U-Test was used to find differences between group I and group II.

Results: The self-assessment of students of group I increased significantly after the course for the variable “installation and preservation competency of a doctor-patient-relationship with sensitive, pretentious or aggressive patients”. Furthermore, students of group I used significantly more often adequate and comprehensible expressions and avoided dental terminology while talking with real patients. The patients certified that students of group I showed significantly more interest in the patients needs.

Conclusions: This study showed that training of dental students with learning objectives including communication skills has positive effects on social behavior and patient management. Both students and patients seem to benefit from such training modules, which should be implemented in dental curricular development.