Abstract:
BACKGROUND : Training institutions need to ensure that healthcare students learn the skills to
conduct person-centred consultations. We studied changes in person-centred practice over
time following a quality improvement (QI) intervention among Bachelor of Clinical Medical
Practice undergraduate students.
METHODS : Students were randomised to intervention and control groups. The intervention
group received training and did a QI cycle on their own consultation skills. Consultations with
simulated patients were recorded during structured clinical examinations in June (baseline)
and November (post-intervention) 2015.
RESULTS : Matched consultations for 64 students were analysed. The total SEGUE (Set the stage,
Elicit information, Give information, Understand the patient’s perspective and End the
encounter scores) were significantly higher in the final assessment compared to baseline for
both the whole group and the intervention group (p = 0.005 and 0.015, respectively). The
improvement did not differ significantly between intervention and control groups ( p = 0.778).
Third-year students improved significantly more than second years (p = 0.007).
CONCLUSION : The person-centred practice (including collaboration) of clinical associate students
did improve over the period studied. The results show that students’ learning of personcentred
practice also happened in ways other than through the QI intervention. There is a need
to develop students’ collaborative skills during the medical consultation.
