A strategy to improve communication between health care professionals and people living with cancer: II. Follow-up of a workshop on the teaching and assessment of communication skills in Canadian Medical Schools

Abstract

Background and methods: Follow-up questionnaires were sent to all Canadian medical schools in 1994 and 1996 in order to evaluate changes that had taken place in the teaching of physician-patient communication skills since recommendations were made by a national "Workshop on the Teaching and Assessment of Communication Skills in Canadian Medical Schools" in 1992.

Results and conclusions: Fifteen of 16 schools responded. All 15 reported major changes in the teaching of physician-patient communication over the preceding four years or planned changes in the very near future. However, barriers to improving the communications curriculum still existed. The most frequently cited barrier was the lack of trained faculty to teach communication skills; this was followed in frequency by poor coordination over the four years of medical school with lack of scheduled time in the clerkship years. There were identified needs to train faculty to teach communication skills and to extend formal teaching of the subject into the clerkship. Concurrent with these changes, the accreditation process for Canadian medical schools now requires the teaching and evaluation of communication skills.