Dental Students’ Perceptions about their Learning of Relational Communication Skills

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine 3rd year dental students' perceptions about their learning of relational communication skills. This was part of a more comprehensive project to develop a curriculum to teach relational communication skills in dentistry. Methods: (a) Design: The research was conducted in five phases: (i) Video recordings of 3rd dental students' base line communication skills; (ii) Evaluation of students' base line communication skills; (iii) Developing students' communication skills by role playing a structured interview; (iv) Video recordings of 3rd dental students' newly developed communication skills; (v) Evaluation of students' newly developed communication skills. b) Subjects: 3rd year dental students (n = 68). c) Instruments: A case study of a clinical situation was used to role-play an interview with a standardised patient (SP). The SP used a “Rubric”, representing a template of the required communication tasks and skills, as an observational assessment instrument to provide descriptive feedback to the student. The “dentist's” feedback was a questionnaire completed by the students about their experience as “dentist” during the interview with the SP. The “patient's” feedback was a questionnaire completed by the SP about her experience as “patient” during the interview. A study guide, describing the evidence behind communication skills training, as well as the skills required, was developed and used in the teaching. Results: A factor analysis was employed to investigate the structure of the “Rubric” as an observational assessment instrument. Results showed that the Cronbach Alpha Coefficient varied between 73% and 95% for the different task-dimensions represented in the “Rubric.” Conclusions: 3rd year dental students positively perceived the learning of relational communication skills as a valuable and relevant experience.