Medical education
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The study aims at measuring doctors' performance while giving therapeutic instructions and testing the effectiveness of an educational technique for affective objectives. For this purpose doctors' performance was analysed into nine components. Twenty-five trainees in internal medicine were observed and rated regarding the nine components, while instructing 40 patients with a chronic disease. ⋯ However, sufficient doctor-patient concordance regarding the verbal components of the behaviour significantly predicted patient compliance. Following the seminar, significant improvement was noted in doctors' performance, in doctor-patient communication and in patient compliance. It is concluded that observing the doctors' behaviour independently of the patient does not predict patients' compliance; the analysis of the total doctors' behaviour into components is valid in predicting patient compliance if it is used in order to assess doctor-patient communication; and a programme based on audiotape-assisted education is both simple and effective in improving the trainees' behaviour and communication skills.