The Association between Patient-centered Hidden Curriculum and Medical Students’ Communication Skills

Introduction: Nowadays, physicians, medical organizations, and policy makers increasingly emphasize patient centered medical care. Regarding the importance of hidden curriculum in development of medical students’ professional behaviors, this study was conducted to investigate correlation between patient-centered hidden curriculum and medical students’ communication skills. Methods: This descriptive correlation study was performed in spring 2013 within 3 Branches of Islamic Azad University (Tehran, Mashhad, and Yazd) on 327 randomly selected interns. Data gathering instruments were 2 questionnaires: One for patient-centered curriculum (including 3 dimensions of role modeling, students’ experiences, and support for students’ patient-centered behaviors) and the other for students’ communication skills. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics as well as Spearman and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: Among dimensions of patient-centered hidden curriculum, the highest and lowest scores belonged to support for students’ patient-centered behaviors dimension (mean: 63.1 out of 100) and students’ experiences (mean: 44.9 out of 100). There was a significant positive correlation between students’ communication skills with two dimensions of “role modeling” and “support for students’ patient-centered behaviors” (r= 0.24, r= 0.37 respectively and P=0.001). Female students reported lower scores for patient-centeredness in curriculum and their communication skills compared to male students. But this was significant only in “support for students’ patient-centered behaviors” dimension (58.4 versus 66.9, p= 0.005). Conclusion: Considering significant correlation between communication skills and 2 dimensions of patient-centered curriculum, deeper understanding of learning environment and designing interventions for favorable changes, is recommended for development of patient-centered communication.