International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences | September 2019 | Vol 7 | Issue 9 Page 1 International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences Chavan KD et al. Int J Res Med Sci. 2019 Sep;7(9):xxx-xxx www.msjonline.org pISSN 2320-6071 | eISSN 2320-6012 Original Research Article Knowledge and attitude towards basics of communication skills amongst resident doctors Kalidas D. Chavan 1 *, Purushottam A. Giri 2 , Sachin S. Mumbre 3 , Rajendra S. Bangal 4 INTRODUCTION Medicine is an art whose efficacy and creative ability has long been recognized as residing in the interpersonal aspects of patient-physician relationship. 1 The pillar of doctor patient relationship is the bond of mutual trust. This pillar is strengthened by effective communication between doctor and patient/relatives. It has been widely accepted that a doctor needs to have very good communication skills in addition to clinical knowledge and skills required for effective healthcare. Every doctor duly needs to demonstrate humanity, healthy behavior, as well as sensible communication with patients which can build sustainable ‘trust’ in the treatment offered by that doctor. However, the current curriculum of medical courses is enormously focused on providing competent medical knowledge but lacking the focus on inculcating communication skills. Although medical curriculum did ABSTRACT Background: The pillar of doctor patient relationship is the bond of mutual trust. This pillar is strengthened by effective communication between doctor and patient/relatives. It has been widely accepted that a doctor needs to have very good communication skills in addition to clinical knowledge and skills required for effective healthcare. Every doctor duly needs to demonstrate humanity, healthy behaviour, as well as sensible communication with patients which can build the sustainable ‘trust’ in the treatment offered by that doctor. However , the current curriculum of medical courses is enormously focused on providing competent medical knowledge but lacking the focus on inculcating communication skills. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out amongst 377 resident doctors of first to third year, from randomly selected medical colleges of Maharashtra having postgraduate courses in clinical subjects and affiliated to Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik, Maharashtra, India during the period of February 2017 to January 2019. Data was entered in MS Excel sheet and analyzed using percentages and proportions wherever appropriate. Results: Highest study respondents were from General Medicine with 13% of total and having 17.4% males and 8% females among respective genders followed by General surgery and Pediatrics residents with 12.5% each specialty. Conclusions: The study has shown that there was varied knowledge about the communication skills among the resident doctors. The residents have shown fair attitudes and behaviours towards mindfulness and basic communication skills. Keywords: Attitude, Communication skills, Knowledge, Resident doctors 1 Registrar, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik, Maharashtra, India 2 Department Community Medicine, IIMSR Medical College, Badnapur, Jalna, Maharashtra, India 3 Department of Community Medicine, Ashwini Rural Medical College, Solapur, Maharashtra, India 4 Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Smt. Kashibai Navale Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, India Received: 22 July 2019 Accepted: 23 July 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Kalidas D. Chavan, E-mail: kdchavan.17@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20193583