Teaching future doctors to communicate: a communication intervention for medical students in their clinical year

Background: Effective patient–provider communication enables shared decision-making and leads to improved patient satisfaction, treatment adherence and health outcomes. The ideal time for developing effective patient–provider communication skills is during a student’s clinical training, yet few medical schools have a formal communication curriculum during the clinical year.Methods: We developed a communication curriculum for third-year medical students during clinical training, involving videotaped mock patient interactions and direct instruction by a communication professor. The final mock interviews of the intervention group (n = 10) and the control group (n = 9) were assessed by three blinded communication professors using a communication assessment tool.Results: Students who received the communication intervention scored higher than controls overall and in each of four subcategories (identification convergence, information seeking, information giving, nonverbal behaviors), a pattern statistically significant using a one-tailed sign test (P = 0.031). The intervention group’s subscore for information giving was also significantly higher (Wilcoxon Rank Sum test, P = 0.047).Discussion: The communication intervention was successful in improving the students’ communication skills, especially information giving, which is critical to enabling patients to make informed decisions in shared decision-making. A curriculum emphasizing the practical application of communication skills in the clinical year can produce measurable improvements in medical students’ communication.