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.