August 22, 2022-October 11, 2022
7 half days
Course Director
Brianna Rossiter, MD, MS
Clinical Instructor of Medicine
Department of Medicine
rossiterbc@upmc.edu
Course Director
Beth Bollinger, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
bollingerba@upmc.edu
Course Description
The purpose of this course is to provide a life-like learning environment in which medical students will be able to develop and practice effective medical interviewing skills.
The goals of the course are that students will observe and practice:
- Setting a stage and establishing rapport conducive to conducting an interview.
- Introducing self to patient in an appropriate and respectful manner.
- Using open-ended questions, listening and facilitating responses which encourage and clarify the patient’s story.
- Using appropriate questioning techniques, moving from open- to closed-ended.
- Eliciting a systematic history of the onset and course of a chief complaint.
- Using empathy to encourage, support, and accurately understand the patient’s feelings.
- Perceiving and correctly interpreting the patient’s verbal and nonverbal cues.
- Summarizing and soliciting the patient’s feedback regarding completeness and accuracy of information.
- Using alternative approaches for data gathering when an interview is difficult.
- Using verbal transitions to move from one area of inquiry to another.
Additional goals are that by the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Discuss the significance of the medial interview as a basic clinical skill.
- List the basic ingredients of a complete medical history.
- Observe, identify and correctly label the basic skills of a clinical interview.
- Determine the patient’s concerns, beliefs, reasons for seeking medical care communicated during a medical interview.
- Recognize how the interviewer’s own beliefs, feelings, prejudices and preconceptions may result in lack of objectivity and misinterpretation in the medical interview.
Educational Methods
- Standardized patients
- Small-group discussion sessions
- Interview skills development
Evaluation
Evaluation for this course is based on small-group learner skills, interviewing skills, and knowledge of content presented in the syllabus.
Grading: Students are required to pass this course to pass the Introduction to Patient Care Block, Section 1. Grading for the block is Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory.