Volume : 6, Issue : 9, September - 2017

Exploring ATCOM (Attitude and communication) - Medical students attitude towards doctor patient relationship

Balaji Arumugam, Sneha Mohanan

Abstract :

<p>&nbsp;<b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">BACKGROUND:</span></b><span style="text-align: justify; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">For establishing a successful doctor-patient relationship </span><em style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;">an </span></em><span style="text-align: justify; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">effective doctor-patient communication is needed. Medical student&rsquo;s attitude towards the patient-doctor relationship has not been studied previously in India and hence it deserves our serious attention. </span><span style="text-align: justify; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">We initiated this study with the aim to assess the leaning of medical students towards doctor or patient centeredness </span><span style="text-align: justify; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">after implementing a new curriculum (Attitude and Communication module) for Second year students and compared them with other professional year students.</span><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">OBJECTIVES:</span></b><span style="text-align: justify; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">To assess the attitude of students towards doctor-patient communication and t<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">o assess the impact of the AT-COM module (new curriculum introduced) among medical students from different years.</span></span><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">MATERIALS AND METHODS</span></b><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">:</span></b><span style="text-align: justify; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">A Descriptive, Cross sectional study was conducted </span><span style="text-align: justify; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">and <span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">the study participants were interviewed using a standardized and validated questionnaire Patient Practitioner Orientation Score (PPOS). The analysis was done using SPSS software version 20.</span></span><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">RESULTS:</span></b><span style="text-align: justify; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">A total of 200 study participants were interviewed from all the four MBBS professional years. The mean PPOS for the entire sample was 3.36 (&plusmn; 0.53 S.D). Second year students who were exposed to ATCOM module showed more patient centered behavior (</span><span style="text-align: justify; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">Mean 4.00 &plusmn;0.59 S.D)<span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">than other professional year students.</span>Also female gender showed more patient centered behavior (Mean 4.01 <span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">&plusmn; 0.26 S.D) than male counterpart (Mean 3.39 &plusmn;0.53 S.D). </span></span><b style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">CONCLUSION</span></b><span style="text-align: justify; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">:</span><span style="text-align: justify; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif;">Our study suggests that medical school curricula should contain specific interventions aimed towards attitude and communication where patient-centered attitudes are fostered among the students who are the future doctors.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:200%"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;, serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>