Abstract
BackgroundCommunication is a core competence in medical care. Failure of physicians to properly communicate inherent risks of medical interventions has been linked with inadequate training at school. This study analyses a medical curriculum for assessing the content and quality of teaching risk communication to students.MethodsA checklist based on the national guidelines of core competencies on risk communication required of physicians was developed. Participant observers surveyed all teaching sessions at a medical school during a semester to record the frequency, characteristics and clinical context used by lectures during classes. Data were analyzed using statistical and descriptive methods to determine the prevalence and quality of teaching content.Results231 teaching sessions were surveyed. The inter-rater reliability was 81%. Lecturers mentioned topics of risk communication in 61.5% of teaching sessions (83.7% in surgery, 43.3% in internal medicine) but core biostatistics concepts were not discussed in more than 80% of these sessions. Important topics such as patient safety and preventable diseases were underrepresented. Risk communication was mainly taught in large-group, theoretical sessions and rarely with supplementary teaching material (7.4%). Students asked questions in 15.2% of courses, more often in surgery classes than in internal medicine.ConclusionStatistical and clinical topics relevant for teaching risk communication to medical students are not only underrepresented but also minimally explained by lecturers. Supplementary material on risk communication is rarely provided to students during classes. High-resource demanding, small-group teaching formats are not necessarily interactive as students ask few questions.
Highlights
Medical treatments are inherently risky and the precise nature of the risks involved for any given intervention needs to be communicated effectively to patients
A checklist based on the national guidelines of core competencies on risk communication required of physicians was developed
Risk communication was mainly taught in large-group, theoretical sessions and rarely with supplementary teaching material (7.4%)
Summary
Medical treatments are inherently risky and the precise nature of the risks involved for any given intervention needs to be communicated effectively to patients. For reaching shared, informed decisions, physician-patient interactions must include a summary of the associated risks, probabilities of occurrence and their consequences for suggested treatments of diagnosed ailments and about prospective illnesses [1] This risk communication is defined as “. Two major reasons for the difficulties physicians experience in this context are poor teaching of statistical concepts at medical schools and a general lack of communication skills [11,12,13,14,15,16] This may have serious consequences as biased risk perception is associated with problematic health behavior and negative health outcomes [17,18,19]. This study analyses a medical curriculum for assessing the content and quality of teaching risk communication to students
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