An Innovative Course Combining the Acquisition of Communication Skills with First Year Medical Student’s Perception of their Psychosocial Role in Primary Care

Abstract

In response to the inadequate teaching of communication skills in Germanundergraduate medical education, a course focusing on basiccommunication skills as well as the role perception of students in theprimary care setting was developed Up to 12 students meet in weeklysessions. In the first part of each session, theoretical aspects of ritephysician-patient interaction are discussed in a sociomedical andprimary cal-e context. Additionally: a reason for encounter typical forthe primary care setting is introduced, e.g. headache. In the next part,a simulated patient with the aforementioned chief complaint is presentedto the students. A voluntary student takes the history of the SP with anupper time limit of 15 minutes. The encounter is recorded an video-tape.Finally structured feedback is given in the form of fi-ee statements bythe participants and the SP, a modified version of the MAAS-R2 ratingscale, and a review of the video-tape. Results of an analysis of thestudents' ratings as well as satisfaction with the course show that thecourse is highly valued by the participating students and that it mayserve as a model of teaching communication skills early in thecurriculum.