Communication skills competencies: definitions and a teaching toolbox.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Communication Skills Training
• Healthcare Professional Development

Background:

• Physician interpersonal and communication skills are crucial for positive healthcare outcomes.
• International medical organizations mandate communication skills competency.
• The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) developed assessment tools but lacked a teaching framework for these skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define the ACGME competency in interpersonal and communication skills.
• To delineate effective teaching strategies across all medical education levels.
• To develop a comprehensive teaching toolbox for integrating communication skills into medical curricula.

Main Methods:

• A consensus-driven approach involving 16 international medical education leaders.
• Subgroups defined subcompetencies and identified teaching strategies for undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels.
• The developed strategies and competencies were refined through group consensus and feedback from 80 scholars and faculty.

Main Results:

• The study expanded the ACGME core communication competencies.
• Twenty new subcompetencies were identified and linked to specific teaching strategies.
• A teaching toolbox was created to facilitate curriculum integration.

Conclusions:

• The developed teaching toolbox enhances ACGME communication competencies with 20 subcompetencies.
• It provides a framework for teaching communication skills at all medical training levels.
• The toolbox is globally applicable across diverse medical settings and specialties.