Effects of a teaching mode combining SimBaby with standardized patients on medical students’ attitudes toward communication skills

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of a teaching mode combining SimBaby with standardized patients (SP) on medical students’ attitudes toward communication skills (CS). METHODS: Forty 8-year medical program students majoring in clinical medicine were randomly divided into the SimBaby group (n = 20) and the SP + SimBaby group (n = 20). The Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) was used to evaluate medical students’ attitudes toward CS learning. RESULTS: In the SimBaby and SP + SimBaby groups, there were no statistically significant differences in the Positive Attitude Subscale (PAS) and Negative Attitude Subscale (NAS) scores between males and females (p > 0.05). Compared to the SimBaby group, the SP + SimBaby group showed statistically significant differences in PAS, NAS, and the two dimensions of importance in medical context and learning (p < 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences between groups in the dimensions of excusing and overconfidence (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Compared with SimBaby alone, the SP + SimBaby teaching mode can improve medical students’ attitude toward CS learning, suggesting that the organic integration of multiple simulation-based medical teaching methods plays an important role in the acquisition of CS.