How do universities support communication skills for clinical placements with culturally and linguistically diverse...

The aim of this scoping review was to examine and synthesise contemporary research on clinical communication interventions for tertiary students from a culturally and linguistically diverse background enrolled in a health professional qualification.

Clinical communication competence is essential to high quality healthcare and thus is a critical component of all health professional education. The rise in tertiary students from non-English speaking backgrounds in Australia and many other countries has escalated concern over the communication skills required for success in clinical placements and future practice as a health professional.

A scoping review was conducted using Arskey and O'Malley's methodological framework.

The search targeted journal articles published in English between 2010 and 2022 in the databases Medline, CINAHL, ProQuest, Scopus, and Google Scholar. A total of 105 full texts were independently reviewed by the team of researchers, and hand-searching of the references in these studies was conducted. Eighteen articles were eligible for inclusion.

The majority of studies involved a small scale (<30 participants) intervention with nursing students in Australian universities. A small number of studies involved medical, physiotherapy and dentistry students. Most interventions were a voluntary face-to-face workshop(s) focused on experiential learning of either literacy-based skills (reading and writing) or communication skills for specific clinical procedures. Self-reported outcomes were the most commonly cited outcome measure.

While a critical appraisal was not conducted, concerns over the quality of the research were highlighted, and most interventions were not replicable due to the lack of detail provided. Further research to address the gaps in current knowledge identified in this review is warranted.