Patient interviewing strategy and tactics in teaching professional foreign languages for medical purposes

Abstract

Communication skills are critical abilities that medical students need in their practice and further work, especially in interviewing patients. Interviews conducted efficiently are the basis for prescribing appropriate treatment and recovery. In this article, we presented methods and strategies of teaching foreign languages for developing skills and abilities in interviewing patients (professional purposes). The research was conducted from 2016 until 2018 in two groups of medical students studying Russian as a foreign language. In the first group, the teaching was carried out according to the strategy proposed by the authors. In the second group, the foreign language was taught according to the curriculum. The total number of students was 96 in both groups. The average of the total score and studying dynamics were calculated. Students in the first group with a three-stage methodological algorithm were more successful in finishing the course than the second group. The results section shows that the standard model of teaching the Russian language for international medical students can lead to misunderstanding and misreporting the current diagnosis. However, the strategy described in this article can be considered an effective algorithm for teaching international medical students.

Keywords: doctor's speech skills; methodological strategy; stages of patient interviewing; teaching foreign language for medical purpose.