E. Kaplan-Liss is assistant dean of narrative reflection and patient communication and professor of medical education, Texas Christian University and University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine (applicant for Liaison Committee on Medical Education accreditation), Fort Worth, Texas. V. Lantz-Gefroh is improvisation program leader, Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, School of Journalism, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York. E. Bass is visiting associate professor of journalism and director emerita, Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, School of Journalism, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York. D. Killebrew is associate director, Applied DNA Sciences, Inc., Stony Brook, New York. N.M. Ponzio is professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey. C. Savi is assistant dean of assessment and quality improvement and associate professor of medical education, Texas Christian University and University of North Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine (applicant for Liaison Committee on Medical Education accreditation), Fort Worth, Texas. C. O'Connell is assistant professor of science communication, School of Journalism and Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York.
Acad Med. 2018 Mar;93(3):440-443. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002031.
Medical educators widely accept that health care providers need strong communication skills. The authors sought to develop a course incorporating improvisation to teach health professions students communication skills and build empathy.
Teaching health care professionals to communicate more effectively with patients, the public, and each other is a goal of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. The authors designed an interprofessional elective for medical, nursing, and dental students that differed in several respects from traditional communication training. The Communicating Science elective, which was offered by the Alda Center from 2012 to 2016, used verbal and nonverbal exercises, role-playing, and storytelling, including improvisation exercises, to teach students to communicate with empathy and clarity.
In course evaluations completed by 76 students in 2012 and 2013, 100% said they would recommend the course to fellow students, saw the relevance of the course content to their careers, and desired more of the course content in their school's curriculum. As a result of this positive feedback, from 2014 to 2016, 10 hours of instruction pairing empathy and communication training was embedded in the preclinical curriculum at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine.
This course could be an effective model, and one that other institutions could employ, for improving communication skills and empathy in the next generation of health care professionals. Next steps include advocating for communication skills training to be embedded throughout the curriculum of a four-year medical school program.
医学教育者普遍认为，医疗保健提供者需要具备强大的沟通技巧。作者试图开发一门整合即兴创作的课程，以教授健康专业学生沟通技巧并培养同理心。
为了使医疗保健专业人员能够更有效地与患者、公众和彼此进行沟通，石溪大学艾伦·阿尔达传播科学中心（Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science）将其作为目标。作者为医学生、护理学生和牙科学生设计了一门跨专业选修课程，该课程在几个方面与传统的沟通培训有所不同。该课程由 Alda 中心于 2012 年至 2016 年开设，使用言语和非言语练习、角色扮演和讲故事，包括即兴创作练习，以教导学生以同理心和清晰的方式进行沟通。
在 2012 年和 2013 年完成的 76 名学生的课程评估中，100%的学生表示他们会向同学推荐该课程，认为课程内容与他们的职业相关，希望在学校课程中增加更多的课程内容。由于这种积极的反馈，从 2014 年到 2016 年，石溪大学医学院的临床前课程中嵌入了 10 个小时的配对同理心和沟通培训的课程。
该课程可以作为一种有效的模式，其他机构可以采用这种模式来提高下一代医疗保健专业人员的沟通技巧和同理心。下一步包括倡导将沟通技巧培训纳入为期四年的医学院课程的课程体系中。
