Difference in peer review of interaction skills when face-to-face teaching is limited

Background
Good interaction skills are a central part of the work as a physician and are related to better
outcome of care, and physician wellbeing (Maguire BMJ 2002; Boissy JGIM 2016).
Communication skills studies have been taught at the University of Helsinki since 1994.

Students enter clinical studies during year 3, meeting and communicating with patients
independently and under supervision. On the second year of sudie, students participate in
doctor-patient simulations with an actor as a patient. During the autumn semester of year 4
they participate in simulations focusing on demanding doctor-patient –interaction
situations.

In 2020, resulting from the corona pandemic, interaction skills on year 4 were taught both
in person and distance teaching through the use of video calls due to mitigatio measures
limiting group size. Half of the of students participated in person and half from home,
switching for the second session. One student at a time acted as physician, interacting with
the actor patient in a mock interview. Afterwards, the group analyzed the interactional
elements of the situation with a clinician instructor.

Summary of work
Students were asked to voluntarily fill in a questionnaire after each simulation . The results
were analyzed using Microsoft Excel for differences in rating of interaction skills by peers on
four different areas.

Summary of results
In total 79 answers were analyzed. Students participating from home gave a mean score of
0.08 lower (Likert scale 1-5, 5 being most agreeing with good interaction skills) for greeting,
0.06 higher for approachability, 0.2 higher for communication of the planned treatment and
0.05 higher for patient comprehension of treatment plan as compared to students
participating on location. The group participating on distance reported a mean score of 0.91
(out of 1) for simulation visibility compared to 0.96 for on-site students.

Discussion and Conclusions
We found students participating in distance teaching to assess interaction skills similarly to
their on-location peers. Visibility did not differ significantly and supports the idea of offering
interaction skills studies even as distance teaching during times of limited on-site teaching.

Take-home Messages
Students maintain critical assessment of peers in interaction skills studies and assess these
skills similarly to on-location students even when participating on distance.