Teaching clinical communication skills in postgraduate medical education with particular emphasis on palliative medicine

Abstract

Clinical communication skills have been taught and researched for more than 40 years. This set of processes and communication skills with patients and/or their family, and other healthcare professionals, improves the quality of healthcare services, increases patient involvement in the treatment process and improves job satisfaction. It seems particularly important for physicians working in palliative care to have these skills. The process of pre-graduate and post-graduate training was analysed in terms of teaching clinical communication and the expectations of healthcare professionals, with a particular focus on palliative medicine. The results were compared with those of a survey of 123 physicians who identified their training needs in clinical communication. The results show that there is a significant gap between physicians' expectations of their clinical communication skills training and the requirements of the curricula. It is therefore reasonable to modify the existing clinical communication curricula.