Teaching skills training for health professionals: Effects on immediate recall by Surrogate Patients

Abstract
Medical educators increasingly recognize patient education skills as an important component of professional curricula. Previous studies have suggested that a 30‐hr course, “Effective Patient Teaching,”; improves health professionals’ instructional skills. This study was designed to further evaluate program impact on students’ teaching skills and on their patients’ recall. Course participants and untrained matched volunteers were asked to provide instruction based on standard content material. College students served as surrogate patients. After instruction, surrogate patients completed a recall questionnaire on the standard content. Course participants exceeded controls on 10 of 16 selected teaching skills. Trained students also taught more content (p < .01), and their patients recalled more of what was taught (p < .05). Time spent teaching was not a significant covariate. Extent of use of teaching skills correlated significantly with patients'recall (r = .57, p < .01). The results suggest that training that improves health professionals’ teaching skills may have measurable impact on their patients.

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