Communication Skills

Good communication skills are fundamental to doctoring. Our curriculum teaches a model of relationship-centered communication that ensures that every patient feels heard, understood, and cared-for. This is accomplished by training students in specific listening skills and skills to seek out and understand the patient's personal and emotional responses to illness so as to respond with empathy.

Students develop these skills during multiple workshops with simulated participants, provided by the Simulated Participant Program. During these workshops, students practice medical interviewing while receiving direct observation and feedback from faculty, peers, and simulated participants. As students move beyond basic skills, they practice more complex skills such as communicating serious news and managing strong emotion. These interactive skill-building workshops are supported by curated readings, lectures, demonstrations, reflection exercises, and artificial intelligence tools.

The pre-clerkship curriculum also includes many opportunities to interview actual patients during class time in the Clinical Skills course and Foundations of Patient Care. In all of these settings, students apply their skills under faculty observation.