ORIGINAL ARTICLE Medical students’ agenda-setting abilities during medical interviews 1 2 3 3 4 HyeRin Roh , Kyung Hye Park , Young-Jee Jeon , Seung Guk Park and Jungsun Lee Departments of 1Medical Education, 2Emergency Medicine, 3Family Medicine, and 4Surgery, Inje University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea Purpose: Identifying patients’ agendas is important; however, the extent of Korean medical students’ agenda-setting abilities is unknown. The study aim was to investigate the patterns of Korean medical students’ agenda solicitation. Methods: A total of 94 third-year medical students participated. One scenario involving a female patient with abdominal pain was created. Students were video-recorded as they interviewed the patient. To analyze whether students identify patients’ reasons for visiting, a checklist was developed based on a modified version of the Calgary-Cambridge Guide to the Medical Interview: Communication Process checklist. The duration of the patient’s initial statement of concerns was measured in seconds. The total number of patient concerns expressed before interruption and the types of interruption effected by the medical students were determined. Results: The medical students did not explore the patients’ concerns and did not negotiate an agenda. Interruption of the patient’s opening statement occurred in 4.62±2.20 seconds. The most common type of initial interruption was a recompleter (79.8%). Closed-ended questions were the most common question type in the second and third interruptions. Conclusion: Agenda setting should be emphasized in the communication skills curriculum of medical students. The Korean Clinical Skills Exam must assess medical students’ ability to set an agenda. Key Words: Communication skills, Standardized patient, Objective structured clinical examination, Undergraduate, Medicine concerns, and negotiate an agenda in order to enable the INTRODUCTION identification of reasons for the patient’s visit to the doctor [2]. Setting an agenda while applying attentive Agenda setting can be defined as the reaching of a listening may decrease concerns that could emerge later, mutual agreement by a patient and doctor regarding what ensure efficient time management, and minimize the to discuss during the consultation. Upfront agenda sett- risks of important problems being missed [1,3]. Agenda ing is one of the most important factors in the effective setting should be performed before focusing on a management of clinical encounters [1]. Doctors are specific agenda [4]. required to listen attentively, survey all the patient’s Received: January 30, 2015 • Revised: April 2, 2015 • Accepted: April 13, 2015 Corresponding Author: Kyung Hye Park (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5901-6088) Department of Emergency Medicine, Inje University College of Medicine, 75 Bokji-ro, Busanjin-gu, Busan 614-735, Korea Tel: +82.51.797.0172 Fax: +82.51.893.9600 email: [email protected] The listening skills that should be used in the initial Korean J Med Educ 2015 Jun; 27(2): 77-86. http://dx.doi.org/10.3946/kjme.2015.27.2.77 eISSN: 2005-7288 Ⓒ The Korean Society of Medical Education. All rights reserved. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 77 HyeRin Roh, et al : Agenda setting ability in medical students stages of a consultation differ significantly from those Training in communication skills should be persis- used to gather information. When taking patient history, tently implemented from undergraduate and extend facilitation using repetition (repeating the patient’s sen- throughout the physician’s professional life. To teach tence), paraphrasing (expressing the patient’s statements agenda setting, educators should know the students’ skill in a different way), and interpretation (presenting the levels (good/poor) across this area of communication. meaning of what the patient is saying) constitute effec- However, few studies have reported medical students’ tive listening skills [2]. In contrast, when setting an abilities regarding agenda setting. In addition, previous agenda, those techniques, as well as closed questions, research has not focused on specific agenda-setting non-interrogative verbal responses, and comments aimed skills in detail. Furthermore, no research has been con- at encouraging a patient to speak about a certain topic, ducted on either the mean time that medical students constitute interruption when patients are stating their allocate to patients to complete their opening statements concerns [4]. or the patterns of interruption by medical students in Generally, patients have between one and six concerns patients’ completion attempts. per visit [1,5], and the first stated concern is not always Therefore, medical students’ agenda solicitation pa- the patient’s principal concern [6]. Patients primarily tterns were investigated using the following research complete their statements of concern within 60 seconds questions: (1) How many medical students explore [4]; therefore, during the initial phase of the interview, patient concerns and negotiate an agenda? (2) How long which typically takes 1 minute, it is recommended that do the students listen attentively at the beginning of the the doctor postpone diagnostic questioning in favor of encounter? (3) What type of responses do the students questions that facilitate open-ended responses and give after the patient’s initial statement of concern? repeated prompts to assist the patient in identifying more concerns [1,7]. However, incomplete interviews are common in the SUBJECTS AND METHODS medical field [6]. Patients finish their initial opening statement of concern in only 23% to 28% of medical visits [3,4]. The mean time within which doctors allow 1. Participants patients to complete their opening statements is appro- The agenda-setting skills of medical students at Inje ximately 18 to 23 seconds. The most common obstacles University College of Medicine (Korea) were examined to statement completion include closed-ended questions, during the first college semester in 2012. Ninety-five absence of solicitation (i.e., not asking further about students in their third year were included. Our medical patients’ concerns), and the physician’s statements (i.e., school has a four-year curriculum for medical degrees. physicians’ interruption of patient statements and redi- This comprises 2 years of the preclinical course and 2 rection of patients toward the doctor’s concerns) [3]. years of clinical clerkships. A formal communication Most redirections (54% to 76%) occur after the first program for first-year students has been in existence concern has been stated [3]. The likelihood of returning since 2012; this means that the students in this study did to the agenda completion is very low once the focus of not practice communication under a formal course. the discussion is on a specific concern [3]. 78 Korean J Med Educ 2015 Jun; 27(2): 77-86. Third-year medical students were chosen for two HyeRin Roh, et al : Agenda setting ability in medical students reasons. First, there was concern that final-year students A family medicine doctor was the primary case writer. are too familiar with the format of the Clinical Skills He wrote the roles for the standardized patient based on Examination in the Korean Medical Licensing Exam. It his experiences with common medical complaints. Two was assumed that they would be more likely to display communication skills educators and one standardized only the behaviors that are evaluated in the exam, even patient trainer reviewed the script. though they knew the importance of agenda setting. Before the video recording, informed consent was Second, the ability of first- and second-year students to obtained from both the medical students and the stan- control the interviews is less likely to be well developed dardized patients. The medical students were informed [8]. These students may not have sufficient clinical that the purpose of the exercise was to assess their reasoning ability to see a patient within 15 minutes. communication skills. We obtained approval to under- Of the 95 medical students who participated in this investigation, one was omitted from analysis due to a missing file. Therefore, the final sample size was 94, comprising 68 male and 26 female students. The average age was 24.40 years (±2.12). There was no age difference between the male and female groups. 2. Standardized patient case development The station is a 15-minute interaction with a 32-yearold woman with abdominal pain. The medical students’ task was to build initial rapport, solicit an agenda, take relevant histories, and perform focused physical examinations. take this study from the Institutional Review Board Committee of Inje University in Busan, Korea. 3. Data collection and analysis Medical students were video-recorded while interviewing a standardized patient. The segment of the encounter in the current study focused on the solicitation of the chief complaints and current concerns. The identity of the students and interview order were hidden from raters to prevent the halo effect. 1) Evaluation of the tasks for the initiation of the discussion The evaluation form was constructed based on the The instruction for students before entering the exam Calgary-Cambridge Guide to the Medical Interview: room includes the patient’s age, gender, and vital signs, Communication Process. The focus of the analysis was and for the student to determine whether the patient had on the initiation stage of the medical interview, include- visited the emergency room or not. The instruction did ing the identification of reasons for consultation. The not describe the patient’s primary concern. The patient’s rating form included three tasks for agenda setting; these initial statement was formulated such that it would take tasks were rated as yes (1) or no (0) (Appendix 1). Two 40 seconds. There were four concerns that were to be experienced standardized patients were trained as raters presented to the doctor within 40 seconds. The patient’s for 2 hours. The video recordings were independently first concern, presented in 10 seconds, was about dark- reviewed and scored using the evaluation checklist. If colored urine. The second concern was abdominal pain, the two raters disagreed in their judgment of a medical presented in the next 10 seconds. Two further statements student’s performance, the two communication educators of concern were a headache and a psychosocial concern reviewed and scored the interview in order to gain regarding the stomach cancer that the patient’s mother additional insight and clarity. had. IBM SPSS Statistics version 19.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, 79 HyeRin Roh, et al : Agenda setting ability in medical students USA) was used for descriptive statistics; the data are shown as the mean and standard deviation for the sum RESULTS of all task items, as well as frequencies and percentages for categorical data. 2) Timing and content of the medical students’ redirection to the patient’s initial statement 1. Tasks for agenda setting All medical students asked appropriate opening The duration of the patient’s initial statement without questions to identify the patient’s problems and concerns. redirection was measured in seconds, starting from the However, the students did not screen all of the patient’s end of the medical student’s soliciting question to the concerns or confirm the list of concerns before focusing point of redirection. The time was measured by a on a specific concern. In addition, none of the medical research assistant and the exact timing was verified by students negotiated an agenda with the patient. two investigators. The interviews in which the medical students solicited the patient’s agenda in the initial stage were transcribed. 2. Timing and content of the medical students’ redirection to the patient’s initial statement The two investigators reviewed each video recording and The patient’s 40-second initial statement of their transcript of the patient encounter. The total number of concerns was not completed in any of the interviews patient concerns expressed before interruption was conducted by the medical students. These students evaluated. The first, second, and third questions posed interrupted the opening statement after 4.62±2.20 by the students were coded. The categories and number seconds. All students interrupted the patient during or of questions were coded as closed-ended (e.g., “When do after the statement of the first concern (Table 1). Among you feel a stomachache?”), elaborating (e.g., “Tell me all of the responses, the two most common interruptions more about your stomachache”), recompleters (repetition were recompleters and closed-ended questions. Two of or paraphrasing of what the patient said; e.g. “stoma- the students used more open-ended inquiries to explore chache”), a statement (e.g., “That sounds serious”), open- a greater number of concerns after the first interruption; ended (e.g., “Tell me more” or “Anything else?”), and however, they used closed questions in response to the others, as used in previous studies [3,4]. patient’s reply. Among the first interruptions, the most frequent barrier to completion was recompleters (79.8%), followed by closed-ended questions (14.9%). Closed-ended questions were in relation to two issues; namely, onset (n=11) and nature (n=3). One response was classified into the Table 1. Types of Medical Students’ Responses to the Patient’s Statement of Concerns First responses Type No. (%) Recompleter 75 (79.8) Closed-ended 47 (62.7) Total 94 (100.0) 80 Korean J Med Educ 2015 Jun; 27(2): 77-86. Second responses Type No. (%) Closed-ended 56 (59.6) Statement 18 (19.1) Total 94 (100.0) Third responses Type No. (%) Closed-ended 54 (57.4) Recompleter 24 (25.5) Total 94 (100.0) HyeRin Roh, et al : Agenda setting ability in medical students Table 2. Types of Medical Students’ Second and Third Responses in Case of a Recompleter as a First Question Second response Third response Type Closed-ended No. (%) 47 (62.7) Statement 16 (21.3) Recompleter Elaborating 8 (10.7) 3 (4.0) Open-ended inquiry Total 1 (1.3) 75 (100.0) Type Recompleter Closed-ended Statement Elaborating Closed-ended Statement Open-ended inquiry Closed-ended Closed-ended Recompleter Closed-ended No. (%) 20 (42.5) 17 (36.2) 8 (17.0) 2 (4.3) 14 (87.5) 1 (6.3) 1 (6.3) 8 (100.0) 2 (66.6) 1 (33.3) 1 (100.0) Table 3. Types of Medical Students’ Second and Third Responses in Case of a Closed-Ended First Question Second response Third response Type Recompleter No. (%) 6 (42.9) Closed-ended 6 (42.9) Statement Elaborating Total 1 (7.1) 1 (7.1) 14 (100.0) Type Closed-ended Statement Recompleter Closed-ended Statement Recompleter Closed-ended Closed-ended No. (%) 3 (50.0) 2 (33.3) 1 (16.7) 3 (50.0) 2 (33.3) 1 (16.7) 1 (100.0) 1 (100.0) “other” category. The response was, “By the way, what is interruption, recompleters (42.9%) and closed-ended your name and how old are you?” questions (42.9%) were equally used as the second re- Among the second interruptions, the most frequent was closed-ended questions (59.6%), followed by state- sponse (Table 3). The most frequently used third response was closed-ended questions. ments (19.1%). Among the third interruptions, the most frequent was closed-ended questions (57.4%), followed by recompleters (25.5%). DISCUSSION When a recompleter was used as the first interruption, closed-ended questions (62.7%) were the second res- The present study demonstrated the limited agenda- ponse, and recompleters (42.5%) were the third response setting abilities of medical students in Korea. The (Table 2). Moreover, in case of other responses except students did not explore the patient’s concerns and did recompleters as the second, students mostly used closed- not negotiate an agenda. The medical students took ended questions as the third response. specific history from patients’ first concern. In addition, When closed-ended questions were used as the first the time taken by the students to listen to the patient’s 81 HyeRin Roh, et al : Agenda setting ability in medical students statement was under 5 seconds. Repetition of the standardized patient complains clearly about one major patient’s statement was also predominant in the first symptom in the initial statement. Students are asked to response; however, closed-ended questions featured interview the patient—who has a predetermined primary increasingly in the second and third responses. concern—within a period of 10 minutes. It is the medical These findings are similar to those in previous studies student’s responsibility to gather relevant history, ex- [3,4]. However, Korean medical students’ competency in amine specific physical signs, and discuss diagnostic and setting an agenda proved lower than that of medical therapeutic plans with the patient. The doctor-patient students in other countries, as shown by the research. interaction is assessed, but the items related to the initial This finding can be partly attributed to Korean culture stage include only the greeting, introductions, silence, and Korea’s medical system. and doctors’ nodding while listening. In the exam, it is First, in many traditional medical schools in Korea, assumed that the agenda has already been negotiated; the teaching of communication skills remains limited in therefore, the medical students are not required to duration and scope. Educators have recently developed explore and set the agenda. The students might acquire communication education programs [9]; however, these agenda-setting abilities during their clinical clerkships, need more time to be more fully established. In addition, but these cannot be evaluated in the current clinical some students have exhibited skepticism toward the skills exam. Consequently, medical students focus on the learning of communication skills [10]. The situation at requirements for the exams, including history taking, Inje University College of Medicine is very similar to which differs significantly from focused history taking those in other Korean contexts, as discussed previously. [2]. That is, formal communication courses had not yet been However, any improvement strategies including pro- established and some students exhibited skepticism longed training, long consultations and/or non-Korean toward communication education. cultures cannot guarantee good agenda-setting skills. In Second, it is common in Korean training hospitals for a Dutch study, the effect of a 4-year teaching program physicians, including residents, to have under 5 minutes was found to be less relevant to the development of of contact with individual patients. While the fee-for- students’ exploration of reasons for the medical encoun- service system is applied for paid doctors, the fee ceiling ter [11]. Furthermore, in an Australian study, students is low. Therefore, hospital income depends on the num- displayed limited improvement during their clerkships, ber of patients seen by the hospital’s physicians within as demonstrated by their poor performance in agenda a certain period. Poor quality and inefficient communi- setting [12]. Time pressure, medical difficulties, and cation subsequently occurs between doctors and patients physicians’ clinical experience were not the causes of the due to physicians being pressed for time. Korean medical low frequency of patients’ completion of their opening students continuously observe short encounters between statements [13]. Although doctor visits lasting under 15 doctors and patients. Consequently, these students are minutes are related to poor quality of communication more likely to allocate short consultation periods to [14], more time does not ensure better communication patients and practice time efficiency. between a doctor and a patient [15]. Young doctors Finally, a well-defined agenda is presented in the cannot spontaneously learn the basic communication Korean National Clinical Skills Exam. In the exam, a skills in daily clinical work, despite their exposure to 82 Korean J Med Educ 2015 Jun; 27(2): 77-86. HyeRin Roh, et al : Agenda setting ability in medical students short postgraduate communication skills courses. Conse- concerns, including about possible diagnoses and pro- quently, their deficient communication skills persist into gnoses, their anxieties about the side effects of treat- their professional lives [16]. ments and unwanted prescriptions, and information In light of this, how can medical students be about their social conditions [19]. Therefore, medical encouraged to improve their ability to set agendas? The students should be trained to explore these issues and following four strategies are recommended: highlighting listen carefully to patients who cannot express their the importance of agenda setting in encounters with concerns easily. patients throughout the curriculum, modification of the Second, changes in the format of the Clinical Skills instruction format of the clinical skills exam, faculty Exam in the Korean National Licensing Exam should be development, and reform of the Korean healthcare sys- considered. Medical students’ agenda-setting abilities tem to be more patient-centered. The emphasis on the should be assessed. It is recommended that the exam importance of agenda setting and the clinical skills exam instructions not indicate the patient’s primary concern. format is discussed in more detail in the paragraphs Currently, the instructions on the Medical Council of below. Canada Qualifying Examination Part II do not present First, it is proposed that, over the duration of the and summarize the patient’s primary concern and agenda curriculum, medical students be trained to identify and [20]. This appears to be a more appropriate method of negotiate the primary concern at the beginning of the assessing medical students’ ability to take medical history doctor-patient encounter. In order to make differential in the real world. diagnoses during their clerkships, medical students tend This study has two key limitations. The first limitation to focus more on medical information [17] rather than on is that the medical students’ abilities were investigated in upfront agenda setting. However, the students have little an exam setting, not in real settings. The second limita- opportunity to obtain feedback on locating patients’ tion is that only the sentences from the first to the third hidden agendas or they overuse inefficient closed-ended question were analyzed. That is, analysis was not con- questions. Emphasis on agenda setting, with appropriate ducted on the whole conversation; therefore, it is not feedback, is desirable. Furthermore, a doctor’s ability to known whether the medical students ultimately deter- actively listen optimizes the exploration of reasons as to mined the patient’s real agenda. why a patient visits a doctor. It can be expected that, in In conclusion, Korean medical students have limited a country such as Korea, where indirect communication ability to explore patient concerns and to negotiate is a virtue, hidden agendas are more difficult to agendas during medical interviews. In addition, they determine than in countries where direct communication interrupt the patient’s first statement in within 5 seconds, is more common. primarily using recompleters and closed-ended ques- It would be beneficial to identify the type of patients tions. In order to improve medical students’ ability to set who tend not to communicate their agendas easily, or the agendas, communication skills focusing on upfront types of agendas that cannot easily be determined. agenda setting, through active listening, should be Younger, uneducated, and unmarried patients have been taught. Moreover, the instruction format of the Clinical found to be less likely to trust doctors and express their Skills Exam in the Korean National Licensing Exam desires [18]. Typically, patients do not express their should be changed to avoid explicating the patient’s chief 83 HyeRin Roh, et al : Agenda setting ability in medical students complaint so as to facilitate assessment of agenda-setting WReN study. Ann Fam Med 2004; 2: 405-410. 6. Baker LH, O'connell D, Platt FW. "What else?" Setting ability. the agenda for the clinical interview. Ann Intern Med 2005; 143: 766-770. Acknowledgements: We thank the large number of academic staff who contributed to the development of this task-based learning outcome in clinical clerkships at Inje University College of Medicine. In particular, we acknowledge the work of the Clinical Education Committee and the Curriculum Committee, the support of the Office of Medicine, and the technical support of the Medical Education Unit. 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