Assessment of essential communicative skills of first year medical students

Abstract

The purpose of the presented work is to assess the development and progression of basic communication skills of the 1st year students of the medical faculty that can serve as the basis for their further improvement over the course of professional education. The general level of students' communication skills was assessed using the test "Diagnosis of communicative and organizational tendencies"; the general level of empathy and the degree of its manifestation in communicating with different categories of people were studied using the Yusupov I. test; types of behavior in conflicts were estimated using the Thomas test. The research findings were processed according to the keys suggested by the authors of the tests. The study has shown that the majority of students (66%) demonstrates a high and very high level of general communication, while 18% of participants have low and very low levels of communication skills. An adequate general level of empathy was found in 91.7% of 1st year students, moreover, it was high in the remaining 8.3% of students. All respondents have shown the greatest empathy towards parents (average level 10.1 out of 15 possible scores), strangers (9.2) and children (8.9), while the level of empathy for older people was 6.9 points. Determining the strategy for resolving conflict situations has revealed that 1st year students most often choose a compromise (22.5% boys and 24% girls), the strategy of avoidance ranks the second position and is commn among the girls (23%, while the boys exhibit rivalry (21.8%), cooperation is chosen mainly by the girls (19.8%). The results of the study have shown that high levels of general communication and empathy could contribute to the choice of a future profession by the students and need only the right support during their graduate training program. Much attention should be paid to fostering empathy for the elderly people and the choice of cooperation as the best conflict resolution strategy between the parties during educational process at the university.