Tag Archives: communication skills

“Soft” Skills: The Importance of Learning to Communicate

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Communication skills are just as important as medical knowledge and clinical skills

  • M3 Ananya, M3 Eric, MD/PhD student Madi, and our admissions guru Rachel talk about communication skills and their importance for patient outcomes, professional development and advancement, and career satisfaction.
  • Whether it’s patients reviewing their notes in the electronic health record, residents passing on knowledge to students, providers empathetically communicating findings and plans to patients with no scientific background, or scientists collaborating professionally with their colleagues, everything depends on this thing that humans do all the time–with varying degrees of success.
  • Meanwhile, some students may see these as “soft” skills, giving less importance to them than grades on exams or their scores on boards.

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Continue reading “Soft” Skills: The Importance of Learning to Communicate

How do you solve a problem like the Food Babe?

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Science is hard!
Science is hard!
The blogosphere is full of science misinformation, and lately Food Babe has been getting an earful for her contributions to that steaming pile of nonsense.  If you don’t know her, you should because she’s on a mission to teach people how to eat ‘like the Food Babe’ because she knows what she’s doing–and those people she’s teaching are your patients.  Is her heart in the right place–she just wants people to know what they’re eating–despite her lack of scientific knowledge, and does that make it okay? How did we get to this place where whether something is food or isn’t food has to be debated? What can medical professionals do to counter misinformation patients find on Dr. Google?  Continue reading How do you solve a problem like the Food Babe?

‘Fake Patients’ and Students: a Meeting of the Minds

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Few students like exams.  That probably wasn’t close-to-mind when, in 1999, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which accredits medical colleges, decreed that the Carver College of Medicine would incorporate clinical skills assessment into the curriculum.  Then, in 2004, the National Board of Medical Examiners began using the Step II Clinical Skills test as part of the United States Medical Licensing Examination.  This Step, one of the three that seeks to ensure students are becoming competent doctors, required students to demonstrate their clinical skills on live actors.  These actors played standardized roles so that the examination results would be meaningful.

So it was that the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, and MD programs across the country, created the Performance-Based Assessment Program.  The PBA program was charged with preparing third-year students for this new exam. They did this the exact same way the NBME did it: by hiring actors to portray patients with various complaints to test what third- and fourth-year students had learned about interviewing such patients.

Since then the program has grown tremendously.  Now they don’t just test medical students, but they teach them as well.  Things like general physical exam skills, PE skills specific to male and female patients, communication skills, and a lot more.

On this episode, students Cole Cheney, Senuri Jayatilleka, Michael Zhang, and Keenan Laraway joined simulated patients JC Luxton and Mary Nell Jackson meet for a little debate and an exchange of views on their roles as students and ‘fake patients.’ 

Listen to Episode 026 – Who Are These People, Anyway? Simulated Patients and Students.

The opinions expressed in this feed and podcast are not those of the University of Iowa or the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.