Abstract
It is very important for healthcare professionals to have good clinical communication skills, especially dentists. Patient-centred care results in patient satisfaction, better outcomes, and less complaints from dental patients. Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the clinical communications skills programme of the pre-graduate course in dental medicine at the University of Porto had to be transformed to an online format. Based on their role as faculty, the authors aimed to recount their initial reflections and concerns within this perspective, and to share how they adapted to the new reality of teaching clinical communication skills online, as well as the conclusions of our experience, in the hope that this will help others who may have to go through a similar process. The authors acknowledged that the students achieved the pre-established goals of the clinical communications skills programme through the new online format.
Highlights
Clinical communication skills are an essential component of a doctor’s training, both at the pre-clinical stage, and in further education medical programmes [1]
It is from this perspective that the authors, all of whom are members of faculty of the pre-clinical communication skills training programme at the FMDUP, aim to share their experience in transforming this in-person programme into an online one, which is completely taught at a distance, describing the advantages and disadvantages, of this change and the lessons that can be learnt, which can be useful to other teachers, as the pandemic is far from its end [14]
Whereas many of the course units managed to adapt to new methods with little difficulty, some other course units encountered more difficulties, due to a greater practical component of teaching, which was the case for the teaching of clinical communication skills in the Psychology II course unit of the Masters in Dental Medicine at the University of Porto
Summary
Clinical communication skills are an essential component of a doctor’s training, both at the pre-clinical stage, and in further education medical programmes [1]. Teaching clinical communication skills to future dentists cannot come to a halt on account of the COVID-19 pandemic [13] It is from this perspective that the authors, all of whom are members of faculty of the pre-clinical communication skills training programme at the FMDUP, aim to share their experience in transforming this in-person programme into an online one, which is completely taught at a distance, describing the advantages and disadvantages, of this change and the lessons that can be learnt, which can be useful to other teachers, as the pandemic is far from its end [14]. This perspective paper was approved by the Ethics Committee of our University (Comissão de Ética para a Saúde do Centro Hospitalar São João/Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, approval number: CE-OP-49-2020)
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