Medical student training in doctor-patient communication

Basic theories on doctor-patient communication as taught in the course on human behaviour to third-year medical students at the University of Cape Town are outlined, and it is shown how these are understood and used by medical students early in their clinical training. It is on these foundations that the later training in psychiatric interviewing and therapeutic intervention is based. The goal is to train the doctors of tomorrow to care for patients with physical and psychological distress equally effectively.