BackgroundSince 2011, the Swiss Catalogue of Learning Objectives (SCLO) has provided the framework for assessing communication skills in the Swiss Medical Federal Licensing Examination (FLE). This study evaluates how far the communication curricula of five Swiss medical schools match the SCLO and international recommendations. It also explores their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT).MethodsA mixed method approach was used. In a first step, curriculum coordinators/key communication skills teachers and medical graduates were asked to fill out a questionnaire based on communication related objectives from the SCLO and a review of European consensus statements on communication training. Second, information was collected from all Swiss medical schools to identify which communication skills were taught in which formats and at what time points within the 6-year curricula. Finally, 3–4 curriculum coordinators/key communication skills teachers from each medical school were interviewed about their communication curriculum, using SWOT analysis.ResultsSixteen teachers/coordinators (response rate 100%) and 389 medical graduates (response rate 43%) filled out the questionnaire. Both the teachers/coordinators and the graduates considered that two thirds of the communication items listed in the questionnaire were covered in their curricula. Between sixty and two hundred structured hours were dedicated to communication, predominantly in small group and experiential formats. Assessment relied on both MCQs and OSCEs. Most of the training occurred during the first three years of medical school. Teachers felt that the need for communication skills training was now well-recognized by their institution and was taught with appropriate teaching methods. However, recruitment and training of teachers, continuity of communication skills training during clinical years, and the adoption of a common frame of reference among the five medical schools, remained a challenge.ConclusionAlthough the Swiss medical schools all offered a partly longitudinal communication skills training, with appropriate teaching methods, this study indicates that the communication skills actually taught do not fully match the SCLO or international recommendations. There was less training for complex communication skills training during the clinical years, and ensuring quality and coherence in the teaching remained a challenge.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12909-018-1376-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
This article aims at shedding light on the role of physician and patient gender in the medical consultation. Because of the scarce amount of studies concentrating on gender aspects of the physician-patient interaction in rehabilitation or chronic disease, mostly results from general medicine are reported. Female physicians have a more emotional and less dominant communication style. Female patients bring up more psychosocial topics and disclose more information about themselves in general. Both female and male physicians give more information and apply a more partnership-oriented communication style when seeing a female patient. Female and male patients communicate more partnership-oriented with female physicians and share more psychosocial and medical information with them. Same-gender dyads seem beneficial most of the time for physician-patient communication. Mixed-gender dyads are more difficult, especially when a younger female physician sees a male patient. There is no single good communication style recommendable for all physicians. Rather, the research results presented should be applied to communication trainings for physicians. This could provide physicians with a flexible choice of communication styles to apply according to different situations.
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