Knowledge and Attitudes of Resident Physicians Regarding Communication Skills in Holy Karbala Governorate

Abstract Background: Communication is an important skill that should be learned by physicians and health sector workers. A physician’s communication skills include the ability to collect information to reach for a definitive diagnosis, appropriate management, and instructions about lifestyle modification. Good communication enhances the doctor–patient relationship, increasing the satisfaction of the patient. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the knowledge and attitudes of resident physicians about communication skills, and the correlates. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the resident physician’s knowledge and attitudes from March 1 to April 20, 2020. A semi-structured self-administered online questionnaire was prepared by the researchers and delivered to 264 physicians enrolled in this study. The questionnaire consists of six sections that include demographic characteristics, educational items, knowledge domain, attitude domain, barriers, and open questions. Results: Only 185 physicians responded to this survey with a response rate of 70%, among them 112 (60.5%) were females and 73 (39.5%) were males, the female-to-male ratio was 1.5:1. The overall knowledge score of residents about communication was fair, 58.4% had good knowledge score and 36.8% had a very good score. The results also found that 70.8% of residents were exposed to training courses in communication skills. There is no statistically significant association between the mean knowledge score and gender of participants P > 0.05. There is a significant association between the mean knowledge score with the positive attitudes score P < 0.05. Conclusions: Resident physicians in Karbala had good knowledge of communication skills and a positive attitude toward these skills. Residents’ physicians had the desire to attend more training courses despite a good knowledge score.