Students’ perspectives on communication skills’ course learning modes in two medical schools in Zambia: An interview-based descriptive study

Abstract

Introduction This study sought the views of undergraduate medical students on the effectiveness of their modes of instruction in communication skills knowledge and skills acquisition and transfer. Understanding the teaching-learning experiences from the students’ viewpoint could influence communication skills course facilitators to adopt instructional modes and learning experiences that enhance competency development in communication skills. It could also emphasize the need for curriculum developers to review the medical school curriculum, specifying student-centered and active learning pedagogical practices. Methods The descriptive study involved an in-depth semi-structured interview of eight undergraduate medical students from two medical schools in Zambia, who participated in communication skills training, selected through a purposive nonprobability sampling. The study mostly appropriated Tracy’s phronetic iterative analysis during its thematic analysis of the textual data collected between April and May 2022. Results The participants affirmed the importance of communication skills to their medical training but, decried the dominance of lecture-based delivery, limited interactive sessions, untimely and inadequate feedback from teachers and peers, inefficacy of teaching communication skills as theory, and limited understanding and distraction from online delivery as factors that hindered communication skills teaching-learning. Conclusion Although the students expressed communication skills as pivotal to their training and medical practice, their experiences of learning the skills through non-experiential and traditional lecture-based methods did not facilitate the motivation required for mastery and competency, suggesting that facilitators and curriculum planners should reevaluate the teaching-learning modes and process.