Communication skills: a new strategy for training

In 1993 the General Medical Council (GMC) published Tomorrow's Doctors, a set of recommendations for medical education. Much of this document was concerned with the training of communication skills and how this could be improved. This recommendation follows decades of evidence about the importance of communication from many widely respected medical teachers from every discipline: Doctors can discharge (their) important tasks effectively only if they possess the relevant skills. Unfortunately, many do not appear to acquire them during their professional training. (Maguire, 1981) There appears to be a failure sometimes to notice what is really being said… the doctor avoids the acute discomfort of being aware of a problem in which he would rather not get involved. (Norell, 1972).

Abstract licence: CC BY

A person counts once a day per paper. We keep no cookie and no address: a reader is a hash that changes every day. Any month under five reads shows no number.