BEME Guide No. 2: Teaching and learning communication skills in medicine -a review with quality grading of articles

A literature search for articles concerning communication skills reaching a nd learning in medicine was done. The search yielded 180 pertinent articles , which were quality graded into the three categories of high, medium and l ow quality: using established criteria. Only those of high and medium quali ty were used for the review, which thus is based on 31 randomized studies, 38 open effect studies and 14 descriptive studies. Col,Communication skills can be taught in courses, are learnt, but are easily forgotten if not main tained by practice. The most effective point in time to learn these at,medi cal school is probably during the clinical clerkships, but there is no stud y, that has specifically addressed this question. After, a short period of training, doctors can be effective as teachers. The teaching method should be experiential as it has been shown conclusively, that instructional metho ds do nor give the desired results. The contents of communication skills co urses should primarily be problem defining An students should have communic ation skills training since those with the lowest pre-course scores gain th e most from such courses. Men are slower learners of communication skills t han women, which should be taken into account by course organizers. As ther e is only one really long-term follow up into the residency, phase of commu nication skills training at medical school, those who have done randomized studies in the field should if possible carry out further follow-lip studie s.