002-Teaching Communication Skills

Communication skills are mandatory for undergraduate medical training. Although part of most programmes in the country, its application is limited towards achieving an effective outcome. Some of the major barriers include: Ill defined learning objectives, dearth of trained faculty, and there a restricted pedagogy.

This workshop provides a stimulating opportunity to work with a diverse faculty from different institutions, brainstorm innovative ideas in the face of existing challenges and develop personal skills to engage students more effectively. It aims to explore current challenges for teaching communication skills and develop medical teacher’s skills to design more engaging, relevant and effective teaching plans. The participants will work in an interactive environment to outline focused learning objectives and explore innovative and cost effective strategies to achieve these objectives. The workshop covers an in-depth examination of essential components of ‘Communication skills’ required for undergraduate medical courses. There is particular emphasis on application of these essential elements on a medical consultation model. In addition to working in small groups, the participants will present their teaching skills through role-plays and live demonstrations. It also examines the potential scope of social networks and fast developing information technology to supplement effective training strategies.

At the completion of the workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Outline learning outcomes for a module on teaching communication skills.
2. Apply the theoretical framework to a medical consultation model.
3. Identify an effective teaching strategy to achieve their objectives.
4. Design and demonstrate a teaching session on ‘Communication skills’.

Communication skills are an integral part of undergraduate medical and nursing training programmes.
Teaching Communication Skills would be particularly useful for the following:
• Instructors (Medical, Dental, Nursing, Other Health Professionals)
• Senior faculty members (Medical, Nurses, Other Healthcare professionals)
• Educationists (Medical, Nurses, Other Healthcare professionals)
• Educational leaders (Medical, Nurses, Healthcare professionals)

Dr Asma Humayun is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and has over 20 years of academic and clinical experience with special interest in psychological interventions (including counseling). This also includes complex psychiatric interventions, capacity building for mental health resource, medical education & service development. She has been an undergraduate and postgraduate trainer (for Psychiatry & Behavioural Sciences) for 18 years. She is the author of a textbook of Behavioural Sciences (including a module on communication skills), which has been approved by the Higher Education Commission for undergraduate and postgraduate medical training in the country. She also has extensive experience of working as a consultant for the WHO as a psycho-social advisor. She was involved in the peer review of developing the ‘communication module’ as part of the WHO mhGAP package in 2009. More recently, she is a member of the working group for revising mhGAP training package over the last two years. In addition, she is also a member of the WHO working groups for revising stress-related disorders for ICD 11.