APPLYING SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING (SST) IN A PROGRAMME FOR DOCTORS

This article is a continuation of a research project conducted in late 2010-2011. The results of that research showed that in medical circles there is a high demand for training in the fields of effective communication, assertiveness, establishing a close, intimate contact with patients and/or their families and so on. In that situation it was decided to check whether, in the opinion of the training participants, applying SST to help doctors develop social competences used in their daily work would turn out to be useful. For this purpose, a series of training sessions for doctors was designed, implemented and thereafter evaluated. A comparison of the evaluations carried at three time points - before training, immediately after, and three months following completion of the training - has led us to conclude that SST can be a useful tool for doctors to develop social skills facilitating their daily contacts with patients and their families.