The long-term effectiveness of interpersonal skills training in medical schools

To determine the effectiveness of teaching interpersonal skills (IPS) in medical school, the authors evaluated interview behaviors of 46 general internal medicine interns and residents from 24 schools. Measures of interview skills included three independent videotape ratings of actual patient interviews. Telephone and mail interview forms assessed the quality of interpersonal skills training provided by each medical school. House officers receiving IPS training did not perform significantly better than nontrained colleagues on any of 12 parameters. However, when IPS training was divided into high and low categories based on comprehensiveness of training, house officers receiving the more comprehensive courses demonstrated greater use of openended questions and emotion-related responses. Implications of these findings are discussed.