Interpersonal and Communication Skills Teaching Materials
Components of Interpersonal and Communication Skills Competency
The components in which trainees must demonstrate proficiency in this Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education competency are:
- Communicate effectively with patients, families, and the public, as appropriate, across a broad range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds
- Communicate effectively with physicians, other health care professionals, and health related agencies.
- Work effectively as a member or leader of a health care team or other professional group
- Act in a consultative role to other physicians and health professionals.
- Maintain comprehensive, timely, and legible medical records, if applicable
A number of readily available resources and teaching tools are accessible through the links below.
Resources and Teaching Tools
I. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) offers a number of general and competency-specific resources to facilitate the teaching and assessment of a number of the core competencies. The Advancing Education in IPCS Booklet defines and answers questions about this competency, and offers suggestions and methods for teaching this competency to trainees, as well as assessing trainee proficiency in IPCS. The IPCS Booklet is available on their website.
II. Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) MedEd Portal provides several online modules for teaching interpersonal and communications-related skills, including the following:
- “The Patient Encounter: Asking Difficult Questions”
- “End-of-Life Communication Education Program for Internal Medicine Residents”
- “Standardized Patient Oriented Teaching (SPOT)”
- “Utilizing Standardized Patients to Enhance Health Literacy Communication Skills”
- “Lab Module: Teaching Skills in Delivering Difficult News to Patients”
These and other resources are accessible on the AAMC website.
III. HCPro Healthcare Marketplace offers a CD or a 90-minute Webcast, both of which are intended to show how to:
- Integrate professionalism and IPCS into existing curricula
- Recognize opportunities to teach these competencies in everyday interactions with trainees
- Evaluate and document resident competency in these areas
The cost for these HCPro materials is $269.00.
Publications related to Interpersonal Communication Skills
To obtain copies of the educational reviews and resources listed in the bibliography, contact the medical libraries at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) or Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH).
MGH: Visit the Mass General Treadwell Library and click on the link 'Order Articles' on the left side of the page.
BWH: email article requests directly to BWHmedicallibrary@partners.org.
BEME Guide No. 2: Teaching and learning communications skills in medicine – a review with quality grading of articles. Medical Teacher 1999;21;6:563-70.
Makoul G: The SEGUE framework for teaching and assessing communication skills. Patient Education and Counseling 2001;45;1:23-34.
Gordon B: Assessment of physician-patient communication. Presented at ACGME/ABMS Assessment of Physician Patient Communication Conference. Rosemont, Ill. March 21-22, 2002.
Duffy D, Gordon G, Whelan G, Cole-Kelly K, Frankel R, et al: Assessing competence in communication and interpersonal skills: The Kalamazoo II Report. Academic Medicine 2004;79;6:495-507.
Kurtz S, Silverman J, Draper J: Teaching and Learning Communications Skills in Medicine, 2nd ed., Radcliffe Publishing, 2004.
Kalet A, Pugnaire M, Cole-Kelly K, Janicik R, Ferrara E, Schwartz M, Lipkin M, Lazare A: Teaching communication in clinical clerkships: models from the Macy Initiative in
Health Communications. Academic Medicine 2004;79;6:511-20.
Rosenbaum M, Ferguson K, Lobas J: Teaching medical students and residents skills for delivering bad news: a review of strategies. Academic Medicine 2004;79:107-17.
GME Topics and Resources
