Are we preparing future doctors to deal with emotionally challenging situations? Analysis of a medical curriculum

Abstract

Objective: Skilful communication by doctors is necessary for healthcare delivery during emotionally challenging situations. This study analyses a medical curriculum for the frequency and intensity of teaching content on communication in emotionally challenging situations.

Methods: A questionnaire with 31 questions ("EmotCog31") was used to evaluate teaching sessions at 17 departments of a medical school for one semester.

Results: Teaching content on communication in emotionally challenging situations was observed in 62 of 724 (∼nine percent) teaching sessions. Fifty-six percent of these sessions were within psychosocial specialisations. Lecturers used mental diseases as teaching topics four times more than somatic diseases. Forty-two percent of the 62 sessions were large-group while fifty-eight percent were small-group, interactive sessions. Clinical examples were used in sixty-nine percent of these sessions. Eighty-one percent of the handouts provided and sixty-six percent of simulated patient scenarios used were rated as helpful. Two-thirds of teaching sessions were rated positively when they included practical context.

Conclusion: There was a considerable lack of teaching on communication skills in an emotional context. Teaching was limited to psychosocial specialties, reducing the impact of available knowledge for other medical specialties.

Practice implications: More interactive, practically oriented teaching methods are useful for teaching emotional communication skills.

Keywords: Cognitive impairment; Emotional difficulties; Emotional situations; Medical curriculum; Medical education; Patient-centred communication; Psychiatry; Psychosomatics; Shared decision-making.