The 7 Elements Communication Rating Form for Teaching and Assessing Medical Communication Competency

TL;DR

This paper introduces a validated tool for teaching and assessing medical communication skills that predicts student performance on a key licensing exam.

Contribution

The 7E-CRF is a dual-purpose, evidence-based communication checklist with strong predictive validity for medical student performance.

Findings

The 7E-CRF demonstrated strong interrater reliability and predictive validity.

The tool can identify students at a 10-fold increased risk of failing the COMLEX Level 2-PE Humanistic Domain.

The 7E-CRF is based on a national and international model and is easy to use.

Abstract

Introduction: Medical communication skills are a critical component of clinical medicine and patient satisfaction. Communication skills are difficult to teach and evaluate, necessitating tools that are effective and efficient. This study presents and validates the 7 Elements Communication Rating Form (7E-CRF), a streamlined, dual-purpose, evidence-based medical communication checklist that functions as a teaching and assessment tool.

Method: A 14-item teaching and assessment tool is described and validated using face, concurrent, and predictive validity indices. The study was conducted with 661 medical students from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM). Student performance was assessed in year 1 labs, year 2 labs, and year 2 and year 3 objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). These internal indices were compared with student performance on the Humanistic Domain of the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX) Level 2-Performance Evaluation (PE), a licensure exam previously taken in years 3 or 4 of osteopathic medical schools.

Results: The evidence of interrater reliability and predictive validity is strong. Data from the 7E-CRF is compared to performance on the COMLEX Level 2-PE, Humanistic Domain. The 7E-CRF can identify students who are at a 10-fold increased risk of failure on the COMLEX Level 2-PE Humanistic Domain.

Conclusions: The 7E-CRF integrates instruction and assessment, based on a national and international model. The simplicity, foundation in professional consensus, ease of use, and predictive efficacy make the 7E-CRF a highly valuable instrument for medical schools in teaching and evaluating competency in medical communication skills.