Evaluation of a psychoeducational intervention in the development of social and communication skills for incoming medical students at a bilingual university

Abstract

Concerns about social skills in academic and professional settings are rarely considered. Undergraduate students and professionals without social and communication skills lead to an increase in the incidence of malpractice claims and interpersonal conflicts. The study is aimed at evaluating a psychoeducational intervention focused on improving social skills for incoming medical students at a bilingual university. A psychoeducational intervention was conducted in a required course from first academic term with 57 incoming medical students from Brazil and other Latin America Countries whose average age was 21.28 (SD = 4.04). The psychoeducational intervention occurred fortnightly for seven sessions which aimed to develop theoretical knowledge about communication and interpersonal relationships in academic and professional settings, interpersonal patterns, teamwork, and interpersonal problem solving. Prior and after the intervention, the students answered two self-report instruments to identify social skills and their academic experience. After the intervention, there was a significant average increase in scores related to social skills and academic experience. These increases were evident in the dimension/factor scores, as well as the total scores. The results demonstrated the importance of early and short-term interventions as a way to develop social and communication skills.