Teaching Communication Skills

As expected, initially some health coach students complained about their perceived increased workloads compared with the workloads of students in the shadowing track. Some students also expressed reservations about their abilities to be effective with their patients, but these complaints diminished as students made contact with patients. For many, this opportunity to establish continuity relationships with patients helped students begin to understand difficulties inherent in effecting health-behavior change. Some students expressed appreciation for the opportunity to discuss their increased self-awareness about communication as well as relationship difficulties and strengths during the small-group sessions. Data analysis is under way. Lessons learned from this project influenced a major first-year curriculum revision the following year, resulting in increased emphasis on basic communication skills and the use of small groups to reach a variety of curricular objectives.