A Team Approach in Communication Instruction: A Qualitative Description
Presented at the Surgical Program Directors meeting as a panel on Friday, May 1, 2009, Salt Lake City, Utah
published online 14 May 2010.
Objective
To establish communication instructional goals and objectives (IGOs) adapted to a postgraduate surgical residency program.
Design
The curriculum that was tested in the current study is predicated on the following concepts: Leadership is a communication skill, not a medical skill; perception and interpretation are individual events and always will be imperfect; team is a relational-based concept, not a medical one; the concept of a perfect world is unrealistic and should not be the focus of any communication skills training; and change cannot occur locally if it is not nurtured globally.
Results
A communication curriculum designed to teach “affirming communication” as well as to focus on how acquiring the knowledge and skill associated with competent communication can result in positive organizational and clinical outcomes were tested using subjects from a rural trauma network. Statistically significant findings were observed regarding knowledge acquisition as well as perceptions and attitudes toward communication.
Conclusion
Any communication curriculum designed to educate needs to be grounded theoretically in both communication and medicine. Personnel from both disciplines need to be consulted in efforts to design a curriculum based in the social sciences yet applicable to surgery.
⁎Department of Surgery, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, West Virginia
†Department of Communication Studies, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, West Virginia
Correspondence: Inquiries to Edward P. Polack, MD, Department of Surgery, West Virginia University School of Medicine, PO Box 9238, Morgantown, WV, 26506-9238; fax: (304) 242-9740
ABSTRACT