Background: Patient interview is the most common professional activity of clinicians. Effective interview can strengthen clinician-patient relationship and improve treatment outcomes. In some studies, such as saboori et al. (87-86) and Managheb et al. (2010), the Calgary-Cambridge model-based learning skill is effective in interviewing skills, while in other studies including Rezvani (2014), communication skills based on the Calgary-Cambridge model did not mention effective interviewing skills. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of communication skills training through the Calgary-Cambridge model on interviewing skills among midwifery students.
Methods: This two-group pretest-posttest randomized controlled field trial was conducted in 2017–2018. The number of participants was thirty including the students in the sixth and eighth semester of bachelor of midwifery conveniently recruited from Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran. Initially, their interviewing skill was assessed using Evan and colleague’s History-taking Rating Scale. Then, they were randomly allocated to a control (15) and to an intervention group (15) through stratified randomization based on their interviewing skill scores and their academic semester. Participants in the control group did not receive any communication skills training, while those in the intervention group received communication skills training based on Calgary-Cambridge model in four four-hour sessions held twice weekly (16 hours). Interviewing skills in the control and in the intervention groups was re-assessed respectively four weeks after pretest and four weeks after the intervention. Exclusion criteria were unilateral withdrawal from the study, two or more absences from communication skills training sessions, and failure to attend the communication skills assessment session. Therefore, one student in the control group and one student in the experimental group were excluded. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (v. 18.0).
Results: The pretest mean score of interviewing skills in the intervention and the control groups was 33.71±7. 342 and 33.64±6.021 respectively, with no significant between-group difference (P = 0.978). At posttest, the mean score of interviewing skills in the intervention and the control groups was 54.50±8.169 and 33.93±5.399 respectively and the between-group difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001).
Conclusions: Communication skills training through Calgary-Cambridge model is effective in significant improving midwifery students’ interviewing skills. The Calgary-Cambridge model could be used as part of the midwifery educational curriculum to improve the skills of interviewing midwifery students.