Enhancing communication skills among residents in India: An interprofessional education approach.

Abstract Background Interprofessional education (IPE) provides opportunities to postgraduates to develop communication skills which are vital for interactions with patients, their relatives, colleagues, paramedical and nursing staff. There is a need to develop an innovative IPE based module on communication skills for postgraduates stressing upon the existing lacunae and requirements detected by a validated assessment tool. We assessed the residents' appraisal of communication skills by a validated questionnaire to identify key areas to improve their communication skills and to determine perceptions of all the stakeholders i.e. faculty, nursing staff and paramedical staff. Methods A descriptive correlational design using an online self-administered questionnaire on a sample of a total of 200 participants comprising residents, paramedical staff, nursing staff and faculty of tertiary care hospital. Study was approved by the Institutional Ethical Committee. Data was analysed by SPSS Version 22.0 used. (p value  Results The participants included 113 residents, 17 paramedical staff, 33 Nursing staff and 37 faculty members. The present study found a significant difference of scores of means between the residents, faculty, paramedical staff and nursing staff p value  Conclusion This study validates the need to enhance the communication skills of residents. The scores obtained will help us design and refine IPE module for the benefit of the residents.