OBJECTIVES Attitudes towards communication skills of medical undergraduates can be gathered using the Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS). We aimed to develop a German version of the CSAS (CSAS-G) in order to explore attitudes towards communication skills in a German cohort. Additionally the potential influence of demographic factors was examined. METHODS We realized the CSAS-G and con...

Good communication with patients is now recognised as the cornerstone in effective medical practice. Medical students do not automatically acquire the art of good communication through clinical training. A new course to promote the development of communication skills at undergraduate level is described. The course was provided at the juncture between pre-clinical and clinical training. Course e...

This study examined the acquisition and long-term retention of a gross motor skill, namely, tossing, in 23 moderately to severely demented Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and 22 health older adults. To identify optimal learning strategies, subjects received 10 weeks of training under either constant or variable practice conditions. Accuracy at the tossing task was assessed immediately, one we...

This paper compares students’ perceptions of support provided in the acquisition of various thinking and team-building skills, resulting from the various activities, resources and technologies (ART) integrated into an upper level Distributed Computing (DC) course. The findings indicate that students perceived strong support for their acquisition of higher-order thinking skills and team-building...

1Department of Medical Education, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar 2Department of Pediatrics, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar 3Department of Surgery, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar 4Department of Dentistry, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar 5Department of Anesthesia, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar 6Department of Geriatrics, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qata...

improving and that communication is best learnt through observation in clinical situations. If the role models that medical students and junior doctors are observing are poor communicators how do we expect these learners to improve? I agree that observation and reflection is an important part of the experiential learning process, as is practising skills. But we know that in clinical situation l...

This study evaluates the efficacy of the preclinical communication skills training (CST) programme at the International Medical University in Malaysia. Efficacy indicators include students' (1) perceived competency (2) attitude (3) conceptual knowledge, and (4) performance with regard to patient-centred communication. A longitudinal study with a before-after design tracked a preclinical cohort'...

This article describes the development of four assessment tools designed to evaluate the communication skills training (CST) programme at the International Medical University (IMU). The tools measure pre-clinical students' 1) perceived competency in basic interpersonal skills, 2) attitude towards patient-centred communication, 3) conceptual knowledge on doctor-patient communication, and 4) acce...

The purpose of this study was to analyze the nature of the coordination evolution during the process of learning a gross motor skill. Participants had to learn to oscillate as smoothly as possible on an experimental swing during 10 sessions of 10 trials. Using tools and methods of dynamical systems theory, two qualitatively different coordination modes were observed during learning. The change ...