Students should be able to understand and speak in English at B1+/B2 Level. They should also be willing to simulate scenarios and role-plays related to the medical environment.

• Lectures, role-plays and scenarios.
• group-work and pair work.
• open debates

Although effective clinical communication with patients is increasingly understood as a key to effective, patient-centered care in all health care settings, the quantity and quality of training that doctors and healthcare staff get in ways to promote and enhance effective clinical communication is sadly lacking. This is true in the context of the pre-service clinical education and it is even more true with regard to the in-service training and continuing education. Based on this information, effective communication skills are imperative to the provider, the patient, and the health care institution.This course proposal stems from the desire to foster patient-oriented communication skills to medical students.

      The theoretical premises are the following:

• Communication is a basic and essential clinical.
• Communication is a series of learned skills and not a personal trait. Thus, anyone who wants can learn to master these skills. Experience alone can be a poor teacher.
• Communication skills need definitions, descriptive feedback, practice and rehearsal.
• Good communication promotes patient/physician satisfaction.
• Good communication fosters improved patient adherence and health outcomes, which results in enormous savings in costs

• Introduction to Clinical Communication Skills
• Building the relationship
• The Patient-oriented Interview
• Gathering information
• Communicating with challenging patients
• Communicationg with children and adoloscents
• Communicating with the elderly
• Breaking bad news
• Role-plays and clinical scenarios

Materials provided by the professor.

Optional Resources

Good Practice Communication Skills in English for the Medical Practitioner by McCullagh&Wright, Cambridge University Press.

Skills for Communicating with Patients, 3rd Edition - CRC Press Book, 3rd Edition. Jonathan Silverman, Suzanne Kurtz, Juliet Draper.

http://www.royalcollege.ca/rcsite/canmeds-e

http://www.gp-training.net/training/communication_skills/calgary/guide.htm

Attendance is highly recommended since communicative skills can be achieved by doing and not by theoretical knowledge. In any case the student should contact directly the professor.

Final Portfolio

Class partecipation