Characteristics and Significance of Korean Medical Workers in Communication Skills Evaluation

ABSTRACT

Background@#The Korean version of the Rhetorical Sensitivity Scale (RHETSEN-K) is a tool for measuring communication skills under development. This study focused on determining whether the results of the RHETSEN-K questionnaire on health-care workers are similar to those of medical students. @*Methods@#We applied RHETSEN-K to health-care workers. Exploratory factor analysis and deterministic factor analysis were conducted. Participants were classified according to the type of RHETSEN-K, and results were compared with those of previous studies. @*Results@#Results of the factor analysis were similar to those of previous studies. The internal consistency of the three factors were all above 0.7. The rhetorical reflector type was the most frequent, and the rhetorical sensitivity and noble self types were similar. The distribution of the type according to sex and occupation were statistically insignificant. Of the total respondents, 22.7% were not classified as any type, which is similar to the results of the non-classification of previous research. @*Conclusion@#These results imply that the concept of three rhetorical factors in Korean culture is different from those used in RHETSEN2, suggesting that it is necessary to develop an evaluation tool that reflects these results.