Current approach to teaching communication skills

Abstract:

Changes in the doctor-patient communication closely followed the changes in the doctor-patient relationship. The development of neuroscience and psychology has led to new insights into how people learn, communicate and understand each other and how changes in the way doctors talk to patients influence patient satisfaction, compliance and treatment outcome. Therefore, educational programmes in communication have become an important and mandatory part of medical education in western countries. Today, the assessment of overall communication skills of medical students and doctors is an integral part of undergraduate, medical licensing and specialist examinations. Increasing number of courses in communication skills are being organized for teachers at medical schools, and numerous communication skill laboratories using modern information technology are being set up worldwide. There has been an explosion of research projects in this field. Within this context, the approach to teaching communication skills has changed as a result of numerous research studies, harmonisation of medical education programmes between different countries and new ideas arising during the teaching process

Key words:
health communication; education, communication; physician-patient relations