CAMPUS: Study may redirect focus of medical admissions

New test seeks to reduce patient complaints through better communication

Ken Sun | Published: 9/11/07

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New medical school graduates with poor bedside manner may end up receiving more complaints from patients in the future. In a recent study published by McGill professor of medicine Robyn Tamblyn, statisticians found a direct correlation between a doctor's communication skills and the number of patient complaints received.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, tracked 3,424 Canadian medical school graduates who took their Medical Council of Canada examinations in Ontario or Quebec, between 1993 and 1996. Researchers administered an additional test to these new MDs which involved a dire medical scenario and observed the way these situations were handled. In the follow-up study, done in 2005, there was a strong relation found between a former graduate's score and the amount of patient complaints. Among the lower scoring examinations, reasons for problems ranged from condescension and various forms verbal abuse to physical and sexual abuse of the patient.

"This [unprofessional behaviour] is what got them the really low scores," Tamblyn said. "This is a situation where [the student] either doesn't know is what inappropriate, or where [the student] is in a very highly stressful situation and this is their stress response."

Tamblyn hopes to incorporate her study's examination into part of the admissions selection criteria and also hopes to use it students are still in medical school.

"The current communication test is required in every province in Canada except Québec and is written after the first year of residency," Tamblyn said. "We're trying to bring it earlier into the training process; by doing it earlier, you have the opportunity to focus on the [students'] weak spots and personalize the education to their aptitudes and abilities."

Though Tamblyn emphasized that an adapted version of these tests should be used as part of the admissions process for medical school, McGill Faculty of Medicine Admissions Director France Drolet emphasized that the McGill Faculty of Medicine already has tried and true methods to test an applicant's aptitude for communication.

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