Student characteristics associated with communication and interpersonal skills in medical consultations with standardized patients

The quality of care depends on the effective physician-patient communication. Interpersonal skills can be improved through teaching, but the determinants are poorly understood. We therefore assessed the factors associated with interpersonal skills in medical students during simulated medical consultations. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 4th-year medical students participating in simulated consultations with standardized patients. Each video-recorded medical consultation was independently assessed by two raters, using the cross-cultural adaptation of the 4-Habits Coding Scheme into French. We then collected information on demographics and education-related characteristics. The relationship between the overall score of interpersonal skills and student characteristics were modeled using univariable and multivariable linear regression. Our analytical sample included 165 medical students for analysis. The factors significantly associated with interpersonal skills were gender (β=-4.8, p=0.011), completion of an international clinical placement (β=6.2, p=0.002) or a research laboratory clerkship (β=6.5, p=0.005). The education-related characteristics, multiple-choice examinations of the 1st to 3rd academic class-year and number of medicine or surgery clerkships, were not significantly associated with the level of interpersonal skills. The typical profile of a student with a high level of interpersonal skills was a woman, who had completed an international clinical placement or a research laboratory clerkship, without influence of education-related characteristics and hospital clerkships.