Training medical students to communicate with a linguistic minority group.

Full Abstract

Effective communication is central to a successful physician-patient relationship. Communication is usually enhanced when the linguistic and cultural attributes of patients are incorporated in health care delivery. With this purpose in mind, the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa has developed a French-language stream to train future physicians for the francophone minority population of Ontario. As part of this project, a communication skills laboratory was created for francophone students in 1996, since all three tertiary care teaching hospitals operated in English only. The laboratory consists of a controlled environment where francophone students conduct interviews in French while being observed by clinicians trained in observation and feedback techniques. It makes use of simulated patients trained to play specific roles and to give feedback to students. Laboratory sessions take place throughout the first and second years and expose students to 15 scenarios covering different themes in each year. Each scenario includes a communication problem. Facilities are in place for filming the encounters for review by students. The project has had favorable outcomes. Both students and clinician-supervisors find that the laboratory offers an excellent learning environment and describe the cases as realistic and instructive. Clerkship preceptors are pleased with the students' communication skills. Because of the success of the laboratory, faculty authorities plan to translate the scenarios and offer similar sessions to students in the English-language stream. The teaching methods used in the communication skills laboratory may be of interest to other medical schools that serve linguistic minority populations.

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Author information

Author/s: Drouin, Jeanne (J); Rivet, Christine (C);

Affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. jdrouin(-atsign-)uottawa.ca

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges (Acad Med), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Jun; vol 78 (issue 6) : pp 599-604

Dates: Created 2003/06/13; Completed 2003/07/17; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12805039, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Communication
Curriculum
Education, Medical, Undergraduate - organization & administration
Health Planning - methods
Health Services Accessibility
Humans

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