Teaching Fundamentals in Group and Interpersonal Relations

Many medical educators are recognizing a need to enhance undergraduate and residency training programs with mechanisms designed to address the stressful nature of physician education and to improve the interpersonal skills of physicians.¹⁻⁵ Inappropriate coping strategies developed in medical school and residency may be a major factor in subsequent physician impairment.⁶⁻¹¹Stress also has a significant detrimental effect on an individual's capacity to learn and develop.⁶,¹²⁻¹⁴The transformation in the organization of health care requires the adaptation of training programs to meet changes in the role of the physician.¹⁵In residency training the traditional physician-resident teaching/patient care diad is increasingly being replaced by a multiple-input team approach involving not only physicians (including residents, attending physicians, and often multiple subspecialists), but also nurses, social workers, paraprofessionals, unit assistants, and others. Optimal patient care and learning require facility in negotiating relationships with a wide variety of individuals from