Communication skills of medical students: Evaluation of a new communication curriculum at the University of Augsburg.

Abstract

Teaching communication skills plays a pivotal role in medical curricula. The aim of this article is to describe and evaluate a new communication curriculum developed at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg (KomCuA), which was conceptualized by an interdisciplinary team based on recommended quality standards (i.e., helical, integrated, longitudinal). A total of 150 medical students enrolled in the 1st, 3rd, and ≥5th semester participated in the study. They completed an online survey (numerical rating scales and validated questionnaires) evaluating their current communication skills, how these developed across the curriculum in terms of quality and self-confidence, and how helpful they considered practicing in small group tutorials with simulated patients. The students' attitudes towards communication and empathy in the context of medical care were additionally assessed. The students' responses were compared across semesters using one-way univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA). Overall, students reported improved communications skills due to attending the KomCuA and further considered practicing with simulated patients as being very helpful (large effect sizes). Compared to 1st semester students, 3rd and ≥5th semester students reported better communication skills (medium to large effect sizes). Additionally, ≥5th semester students showed stronger agreement towards the relevance of empathy in the context of medical care (medium effect size) compared to both 1st and 3rd semester students. The KomCuA has shown to be an effective communication curriculum to support medical students in the development of their communication skills and positive attitudes towards empathy. Additional studies assessing students' communication skills and empathic attitudes longitudinally are warranted to confirm the present results and to gain further knowledge on how these essential skills and attitudes develop across medical curricula.