A SURVEY OF COMMUNICATION-SKILLS TRAINING IN UK SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE -PRESENT PRACTICES AND PROSPECTIVE PROPOSALS

It is now widely accepted that effective interpersonal communication i s at the heart of quality health care delivery but that current standa rds in medicine must be improved (Numann 1988; Cowan et al. 1992). One approach acknowledged by the General Medical Council (1991) devotes m ore attention during training to the theme of communication, and quite significant modifications of the undergraduate medical curriculum are presently taking place. This article documents the results of a posta l survey of the 26 UK Schools of Medicine, designed to illuminate curr ent practices and future plans in respect of communication skills trai ning (CST). As such, it takes advantage of the present period of ongoi ng curricular innovation and change to extend and update earlier revie ws (Whitehouse 1991; Frederikson & Bull 1992). A total of 19 responses was received. Following preliminary analysis, the four schools who ha d already implemented their new curriculum were selected for further i n-depth investigation by means of telephone interviews. In addition to reporting frequencies and percentages for responses to questions, cro ss-tabulations were carried out to explore relationships between certa in of the findings. Apart from some consistency in CST teaching method s adopted, the overall picture to emerge is one of considerable variab ility in such areas as course content, timing, duration and assessment . Foremost among the difficulties encountered in implementing CST appe ared to be lack of adequate physical resources and suitably trained st aff. Future plans were often sketchy and inchoate. Results are discuss ed and tentative recommendations for the further development of CST in the medical curriculum proffered.