Correlation between nonverbal communication and objective structured clinical examination score in medical students

• Published in: Korean journal of medical education Vol. 30; no. 3; pp. 199 - 208
• Main Authors: Park, Seung Guk, Park, Kyung Hye
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korea (South) Korean Society of Medical Education 01.09.2018; 한국의학교육학회
• Subjects: Checklist; Communication; Curriculum; Education, Medical, Undergraduate; Educational Measurement; Facial Expression; Female; Humans; Medical education; Medical History Taking; Medical student; Nonverbal Communication; Original Research; Patient Satisfaction; Physical Examination; Physician-Patient Relations; Professional Competence; Speech; Students, Medical; Voice; 기타의약학; Medical education; Patient satisfaction; Medical history taking; Nonverbal communication; Medical student
• ISSN: 2005-727X; 2005-7288; 2005-7288
• DOI: 10.3946/kjme.2018.94

Nonverbal communication (NVC) may be a crucial factor affecting effective communication between patients and medical students during the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), but it has not been intensively studied. We examined NVC and its correlation with patient-physician interaction (PPI) in the OSCE. A total of 68 video recordings of routine check-up OSCEs were included. A checklist for NVC was developed that included seven nonverbal factors in a mute state (NVM) and four nonverbal factors in speech (NVS), and one point was assigned to each factor. The scores for history taking, PPI, NVM, and NVS were compared, and correlations of each score were evaluated. Students with adequate facial expressions, accorded speech rate and voice volume, adequately matched voice tone, and few or no moments of unnecessary silence showed better PPI scores. The PPI score was correlated with history taking and the NVS score, but not the NVM score. Our results suggest that NVS may be more influential to PPI during OSCEs than NVM. Communication teachers should help students to be better prepared to use both NVS and NVM properly.