Research article Open Access

Research article Open Access
A quantitative survey of intern's knowledge of communication
skills: an Iranian exploration
Mohsen Tavakol*1, Sima Torabi2, Owen D Lyne3 and Ali A Zeinaloo4
Address: 1School of Education, Nottingham University, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, UK, 2Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, Institute
for research and planning in higher education, Iran, 3Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Kent, UK and
4Educational Development Centre, Tehran University of Medical Science, Iran
Email: Mohsen Tavakol* - texmt7@nottingham.ac.uk; Sima Torabi - lgxst1@nottingham.ac.uk; Owen D Lyne - O.D.Lyne@kent.ac.uk;
Ali A Zeinaloo - zeinaloo@tums.ac.ir
* Corresponding author
Abstract
Background: It is a high priority that health care providers have effective communication skills. It
has been well documented that the doctor-patient relationship is central to the delivery of high
quality medical care, and it has been shown to affect patient satisfaction, to decrease the use of pain
killers, to shorten hospital stays, to improve recovery from surgery and a variety of other biological,
psychological and social outcomes. This study sought to quantify the current knowledge of interns
in Iran about communication skills.
Methods: A cross-sectional study using a self-report questionnaire was conducted among interns.
Data analysis was based on 223 questionnaires. The internal consistency of the items was 0.8979.
Results: Overall, knowledge levels were unsatisfactory. Results indicated that interns had a limited
knowledge of communication skills, including identification of communication skills. In addition,
there was a significant difference between the mean scores of interns on breaking bad news and
sex education. The confidence of males about their communication skills was significantly higher
than for females. Analysis of the total scores by age and sex showed that there was a statistically
significant main effect for sex and the interaction with age was statistically significant. Free response
comments of the interns are also discussed.
Conclusions: It is argued that there is a real need for integrating a communication skills course,
which is linked to the various different ethnic and religious backgrounds of interns, into Iranian
medical curricula. Some recommendations are made and the limitations of the study are discussed