Teaching medical students alcohol intervention skills: results of a controlled trial

OBJECTIVE: To assess the relative effectiveness of videotape feedback and lecture methods for teaching alcohol brief intervention skills. DESIGN: In a controlled trial, two student blocks received a manual, lecture and demonstration about the principles and practice of brief alcohol intervention. In addition, experimental students made a 20-min videotape and participated in a 1.5-h small group feedback session. Prior to and after training, all students completed questionnaires and videotaped interviews with simulated patients. SETTING: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Newcastle, Australia. SUBJECTS: Final-year medical students. RESULTS: Levels of alcohol-related knowledge, attitudes and interactional skills as well as general interactional skills were significantly improved after teaching. Alcohol-related interactional skills that were unsatisfactory at pretest reached satisfactory standards at post-test. An intergroup comparison of the improvement between pre- and post-teaching scores indicated that there was no significant difference in the effectiveness of the two methods. CONCLUSIONS: Training can improve medical student performance in alcohol intervention. Further research is required to examine the relative effectiveness of different teaching methods.