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Teaching communication skills: an effective use of resources

Abandon the "old school" attitude to communication skills

Editor - Oliver Lomas claimed that teaching communication skills is not an effective use of preclinical resources, as sessions take up time that should be devoted to teaching basic medical sciences.1 Effective interpersonal communication has rightly become one of the most crucial aims of modern medical education, and communication skills should not play second fiddle to early basic science teaching.

Modern healthcare is more than simply identifying and treating a disease process. A profound knowledge of the underlying biochemical or pathophysiological aspects of a disease process is useless to a doctor who lacks the ability to interact efficiently with a patient to take a comprehensive clinical history.

The importance of introducing communication skills teaching at the earliest possible stage in an undergraduate course should not be underestimated. The ability to communicate in an effective and professional manner with patients and fellow healthcare professionals, perhaps under stressful circumstances, increases the confidence of students enabling them to become more comfortable in the initially daunting clinical setting. Students with better developed interpersonal skills are more likely to gain more from clinical teaching than keen but less prepared students, who may become disillusioned by their initial inability to interact with patients as effectively as they would wish to.

Of course, we should all strive to accrue as much knowledge as we can, but this should not be to the detriment of learning communication skills. The "old school" attitude that communication skills should take second place to acquiring knowledge must be abandoned in 21st century medical teaching if students are to get the maximum amount from their undergraduate years and provide optimal healthcare to their future patients.

Jonathan Dalzell final year medical student, University of Aberdeen
Email: u05jrd@abdn.ac.uk

Teaching communication skills enriches our education

Editor - Oliver Lomas is missing the point.1 The need for medical schools to produce well rounded and socially aware doctors, although having some political basis, is real. Firstly, because this is what the public wants and deserves, and, secondly, because of the professions own longstanding recognition that medicine encompasses not only science but elements of art too, an area that has traditionally been neglected to the detriment of the profession.

A thorough understanding of the medical sciences is, of course, fundamental to future clinical practice, but unless you can discover what motivates a patient to present, recognise why they behave a certain way, and relate to them, then you cannot practise effectively.

Although some teaching methods are contrived, social awareness and communication skills do not lend themselves solely to self directed learning, but neither can they be taught rote style. Medical schools are trying to introduce concepts on which the student can build. Relying on students to work in their own time is not a viable option; there are only so many who could and realistically only so many who would.

Progress is not being made at the expense of medical knowledge; progress is being made to expand knowledge. Although current methods may not always get it quite right, view them in the manner in which they are intended: rather than cheapening medical education, they are a genuine attempt to enrich it.

Paul Blakemore second year medical student, University of Durham
Email: paulblakemore@tinyworld.co.uk