Assessment of the impact of a training program including e-learning and role-plays in third year psychology students' communication skills

Introduction
Given the importance of communication skills in the psychologist-patient relationship1,
several training programs have been proposed (2,3,4). These programs are time and costconsuming,
but little is known about their effectiveness in terms of actual communication
skills (5).Therefore, this pre-post study aims to test the effectiveness of a training program
involving an e-learning module inspired by the cumulative micro-training of specific helping
skills (6) and 4 sessions of role-playing.
Methodology
Thirty third-year psychology students conducted a clinical interview role play before and
after the training program. A blind expert evaluated: 1) objective communication skills as
defined by Kuntz and colleagues(4); 2) perceived empathy with the CARE scale (Mercer,
2004); and 3) confidence in the clinician using a one-question Likert scale.
Results
The results show significant changes with moderate to large effects on several
communication skills (e.g. more adequate reformulations, reflection of feelings ...). One
unexpected decreased is observed regarding probing questions. Perceived empathy and
confidence in the clinician were also higher in the post-test. Surprisingly, no correlation is
found between objective skills and perceived empathy whereas a moderate positive
correlation is found between objective skills and confidence enhancements.
Conclusion
E-learning module with 4 role-plays-based training leads third-year psychology students not
only to enhance their communication skills but also to improve the perceived quality of the
clinical relationship. The lack of consistent correlation highlights the need to evaluate both
the objective and subjective facets of communication.
1(Lambert et Bareley, 2001)
2 (Jaeken et al. 2014)
3 (Hill et al. 2014)
4 (Kuntze et al. 2009)
5 (Norcross & Lambert, 2018)
6 (Lang & Vander Molen, 1992)