Assessment of pharmacy students' communication competence using the Roter Interaction Analysis System during objective structured clinical examinations.

OBJECTIVE To determine the value of using the Roter Interaction Analysis System during objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) to assess pharmacy students' communication competence. METHODS As pharmacy students completed a clinical OSCE involving an interview with a simulated patient, 3 experts used a global rating scale to assess students' overall performance in the interview, and both the student's and patient's languages were coded using the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). The coders recorded the number of utterances (ie, units of spoken language) in each RIAS category. Correlations between the raters' scores and the number and types of utterances were examined. RESULTS There was a significant correlation between students' global rating scores on the OSCE and the number of utterances in the RIAS socio-emotional category but not the RIAS business category. CONCLUSIONS The RIAS proved to be a useful tool for assessing the socio-emotional aspect of students' interview skills.