A Multimodal Curriculum With Patient Feedback to Improve Medical Student Communication: Pilot Study

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Communication
• Emergency Medicine Training

Background:

• Physician-patient communication is crucial but often lacks dedicated educational strategies.
• Effective communication skills are essential for quality patient care, particularly in emergency medicine.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a multimodal curriculum for enhancing communication skills in fourth-year medical students.
• To assess the impact of direct patient feedback on communication skill development.

Main Methods:

• A prospective, randomized trial involving fourth-year medical students during an emergency medicine clerkship.
• Development of a multimodal curriculum including asynchronous video and direct patient feedback using the Communication Assessment Tool (CAT).
• Comparison of outcomes between an intervention group receiving early curriculum exposure and a control group receiving delayed exposure.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in maximum CAT scores between groups before the intervention.
• Students receiving early curriculum exposure achieved maximum CAT scores more frequently post-intervention (OR 1.65, p = 0.008).
• The intervention group demonstrated improved patient-reported communication ratings.

Conclusions:

• A multimodal curriculum incorporating direct patient feedback can effectively enhance medical students' communication skills.
• Early implementation of communication skills training leads to better patient-reported outcomes in emergency medicine clerkships.