Does the inclusion of 'professional development' teaching improve medical students' communication skills?

BMC Medical Education

Table 1 Inter-rater reliability of individual Interview Rating Scale items (n = 53)

	Item	Weighted kappa (κ)
1	Beginning of interview	0.54
2	Body posture	0.21
3	Eye contact	0.47
4	Frequency of interruptions	0.29
5	Use of silence	0.23
6	Use of facilitation	0.42
7	Ability to keep discussion relevant	0.36
8	Picking up leads	0.17^§
9	Covering psychosocial concerns	0.16^§
10	Discussion of personal issues	0.22
11	Empathy	0.25
12	Warmth	0.22
13	Questioning style	0.21
14	Clarity	0.11^§
15	Ending of interview	0.24

^§Three items with a poor weighted kappa (κ < 0.20), items 8, 9 and 14, were excluded from further analyses [25].

ISSN: 1472-6920