Communication and interpersonal skills

Communication and Interpersonal skills are a very important part of step 2 CS exam.

1) Introduce your self by your LAST name and tell the patient that you are his/her
physician

2) Address the patient by his LAST name. If youn forget the name, you can call Sir or Madam
(Tip:- Write the name of the patient on top of the the paper sheet provided to you before
entering the room in bold letters and encircle it)



3) Greet the patient with a smile, and keep a gentle smile where ever appropriate. (obviously

you should not smile much when talking to a depressed patient, once you know his chief

complaint, its also true for emergency case when patient is in distress. Use other empathatic

tactics in such case like putting your hand on patient's shoulder etc.



4) Maintain good eye contact with the patient. Eye contact should be absolutely maintained

during history taking, counseling and closing.

Obviously you cant look into patinet's eyes all the time during examination and while washing

your hands.



5) You can take note of some important points during history taking, when the patient finishes

a sentence or conversation. Dont start talking while looking down on the paper sheet.

Finish your note wrinting, maintain eye contact and then talk



6) To avoid breaking the convesation while washing your hands, keep some general quesitions

in your mind like

what do you do for living?

Do you find your job stressful?

Any stresses in your personel life?

what are your activities, hobbies, interests?



7) Inform the patient when your are done with one part of the history or examination and

proceeding to the next ie. always use transtion sentences



8) Commiting a mistake is not a blunder, not covering up for that mistake in inappropriate

way is a blunder, be prepared for all unusual situaiton and dont panic, its never too late

for covering up a mistake.