[Teaching clinical communication to medical students in Norway].

BACKGROUND

Clinical communication as part of the doctor-patient relationship has gained increased attention in the undergraduate medical education in Norway. Such teaching programmes require considerable resources, as much of the instruction has to be carried out in small groups, and they should be subjected to a thorough assessment from a cost-benefit perspective.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A working group representing the four medical faculties in Norway initiated EKKO, a project designed as a quality assurance of the instruction in clinical communication. In this paper comparable data are presented relating to the extent, form and content of the instruction.

RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION

There are great variations as to what part of the curriculum the instruction is placed in, the extent of faculty-based teaching, training periods in general practice and hospital settings with feed-back on communication skills, as well as in faculty development. To what degree these variations influence doctors' communication skills when fully qualified could be assessed in a further stage of this project, which could also provide an empirical basis for improvements in the instruction given.