Effectiveness of Communication Skills Training for Dental Students

Abstract

A three-day communication-skills training was given to first-year dental students. The remaining first-year students were exempted from instruction and acted as a control group. To assess the effect of the short-term training a videotape of 28 fragments was shown shortly after the training course. Each fragment represented a dentist-patient interaction and ended with a statement by the patient. Per fragment the students were allowed 40 sec. to write down their reactions assuming they were in the position of the dentist. The written responses of a part of the students were scored by a category system. Students who attended the communication-skills training significantly more often explored and recapitulated patients' statements than students who did not participate in the training, but there are reasons to doubt the validity of these findings.