Communication teaching and assessment in medical education: an international consensus statement
Introduction
The importance of communication between doctors and patients has been well established, and there is growing acceptance of the need to teach and assess communication skills in medical schools. The Toronto Consensus Statement, published in 1991, reviewed the evidence about effective communication, current deficiencies in practice, and proven methods of teaching. In so doing, it sent a clear message that communication skills can, and should, be taught [1]. In 1993, the General Medical Council recommended that communication skills be taught throughout the education of medical students in the United Kingdom [2], and similar statements have been made by the Association of American Medical Colleges regarding medical education in the United States and Canada [3], [4]. While medical schools in these and other countries have developed a variety of methods for teaching and assessing communication skills, recent surveys on both sides of the Atlantic show that considerable gaps and problems remain [5], [6].
Faculty meeting at a consensus workshop during the International Conference on Teaching Communication in Medicine (Oxford, July 1996) generated a series of recommendations for developing and implementing teaching and assessment programmes. The points were refined in subsequent discussions with other interested groups, and endorsed in their current form by a workshop of teachers attending the Communication in Health Care Conference organized by NIVEL, the Netherlands Institute of Primary Health Care (Amsterdam, June 1998). While focused on medical schools, the eight recommendations highlighted in this consensus statement are also relevant to both graduate and continuing medical education programmes (Table 1, Table 2).
Section snippets
Teaching and assessment should be based on a broad view of communication in medicine
Education about doctor–patient communication should include not only the development of relevant skills, but also an understanding of the nature, context and ethics of the doctor–patient relationship. The scope of teaching should encompass communication with families and professional colleagues, as well as written and oral presentation skills and use of the telephone in medicine. Teaching and assessment should be informed by the evidence base for effective communication, which can be found in
Conclusion
Considerable progress has been made since the Toronto Consensus Statement was published. The growing international network of associations and individuals interested in communication teaching, assessment, and related research is generating a body of shared knowledge and experience that defines an emerging discipline. The support of the General Medical Council, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and other professional bodies [16], [17] has been very influential in ensuring that
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