The Communicative Competence of Future Doctors with Different Levels of Stress Resistance

Abstract

Physicians’ communicative competence is of immense importance for their professional activity. The current study presumes that future doctors’ communicative competence correlates with their stress resistance which influences their professional performance of duties. The specific aim of our research was to conduct a thorough study of the communicative competence of future doctors with different levels of stress resistance. According to the analysis of the level of their stress resistance, seventy-seven senior students of the Donetsk National Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine were divided into three groups. Further, applying a set of appropriate psychodiagnostic methods and techniques, their communicative competence was evaluated. The results have proved that the research participants with a high level of stress resistance are more communicatively competent compared to the participants with average and low-level stress resistance. Our findings suggest that future physicians’ communicative competence, as it is closely connected with their stress resistance, needs more considerable attention of authorities in medical education. So, we speculate that introducing socio-psychological training sessions both to the curriculum and to the process of current physicians' professional development will contribute to the successful performance of future doctors’ professional duties under pressure, and their interaction with colleagues, patients, and their relatives.