Communication skills in practice vs. communication in the real world: Insights from an international medical student symposium

Abstract

Objective: To explore and compare medical students' experiences with communication skills training (CST) in medical education.

Method: Five medical students from the U.S., U.K., and Ireland shared their experiences with CST at a 90-minute symposium held at the 2022 International Conference on Communication in Healthcare (ICCH).

Results: Students identified two areas of CST that may affect their preparedness for real-world clinical practice: 1) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communication teaching and learning, and 2) the need to effectively communicate with diverse patient populations.

Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic brought major changes to CST, and though training programs varied in their approach, students found that they were able to successfully adapt while gaining valuable skills needed to navigate communicating with patients on virtual platforms. When learning to communicate with patients from diverse backgrounds, students perceived generalized strategies that equipped them with the skills needed to adapt to uncertainty to be the most valuable.

Practice implications: Collaboration between medical schools, both nationally and internationally, provides opportunity to share areas of strength and avenues for improvement in CST. Representation of learner perspectives is essential in order to better understand how well current educational methodologies prepare learners to enter real world clinical practice.

Keywords: Communication skills; Learner perspective; Medical students; Simulated patients; Undergraduate medical education.