M. Vijayasree
BACKGROUND Knowledge of proper Attitude, Ethics and Communication Skills with the patients plays a vital role in success of medical professionals. So, AETCOM module has been formulated to train the medical students from first MBBS itself as a part of their foundation course. We wanted to assess the perception of Attitude, Ethics and Communication Skills (AETCOM) Module by first MBBS students as a learning tool in their foundation course. METHODS This is a cross sectional observational study conducted over a period of one month involving first year MBBS students who joined in the year 2019-20 in Mamata Medical College. 100 students were included in this study. The teaching schedule of AETCOM Module had four sessions three hours each. At the end of the module feedback on their perception was obtained by Likert scale and was analysed. RESULTS A majority of the students (92%) opined that the AETCOM Module will definitely improve their communication skills with the patients. They also felt that such training should be integrated in regular teaching curriculum and done continuously in all the semesters. All the 100 students were given the same questionnaire. Most (30) of the first-year students joined the foundation course late because of the delay in the counselling; whereas, at any given time, 20 students were absent for these teaching sessions. AETCOM Module was satisfactory for 84% of students. For 12% it was just satisfactory, On the other extreme, 4% students were highly satisfied. Students’ views on AETCOM were- asset for gaining confidence of the patients (72%), useful for themselves and for future practice (10%), excellent method for improvement of diagnosis (8%), wanted multiple exposures continuously throughout the UG course (6%) and can avoid medicolegal issues (4%). CONCLUSIONS The AETCOM Module will be good for the first MBBS students on the whole for communicating better with the patients in their medical course. Strengths of this study include feedback from the students for further improvement in the longterm outcome.
