Abstract
Objective: To assess the impact of early clinical
exposure upon communication skills on Kalamazoo
scale.
Methodology: This quasi-experimental, multicenter
study was conducted among 160 third year MBBS
students of one each private and public medical
college from March 2017 to January 2018.
Communication skills of students were scored using
Kalamazoo Checklist-Adapted (KEECC-A). Data
were analyzed on SPSS version 23.
Results: The disparity between both categories was
significant (p < 0.001). The seventh element, providing
closure included asking patient to summarize,
acknowledge and close the interview. The ECE
students performed very good to excellent 41 (51.3%)
as compared to the Non-ECE students 3 (3.8%). The
dissimilarity among categories remained statistically
significant (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: The Kalamazoo scale was well
performed by the ECE group showing that early
clinical exposure can improve communication skills of
students and hence better physician-patient
relationship.
Keywords: Kalamazoo scale, communication skills,
clinical exposure.
