Developing a Korean communication skills attitude scale: Comparing attitudes between Korea and the West

Sowon Ahn, Yeong Houn Yi, Duck-Sun Ahn

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    23 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Objectives: We aimed to develop a Korean version of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) created by Rees et al. in order to elucidate the positive and negative aspects of Korean pre-medical and medical students' attitudes towards communication skills (CS) learning. Methods: We performed two surveys. In the first of these, 325 pre-medical and medical students completed a translated version of the CSAS. In the second survey, 257 medical students and doctors-in-training answered five open-ended questions to obtain more qualitative data about their attitudes. Results: Principal component analysis with direct oblimin rotation performed with the data from the first survey produced the following five factors: facilitation of interpersonal skills; doubts about the importance of CS learning in medicine; motivation; negative attitudes towards assessment, and overconfidence. Results from the second survey indicated that facilitation and importance within a medical context were two core attitudinal factors and suggested some modification to the CSAS to improve its fit for Korean pre-medical and medical students. Conclusions: Using a Korean version of the CSAS (CSAS-K), we determined five factors that revealed a somewhat complex attitude structure among students towards CS learning. The CSAS required some modification, possibly because CS teaching and learning in Korea are in the development stage. Finally, the educational implications of the results are discussed.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)246-253
    Number of pages8
    JournalMedical Education
    Volume43
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2009 Mar 1

    Keywords

    • *Attitude of health personnel
    • *Communication
    • *Education, medical, undergraduate
    • *Education, pre-medical
    • Clinical competence/*standards
    • Korea
    • Learning
    • Students, medical/*psychology

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Medicine(all)
    • Education

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