Abstract

Communication skills program in the first semester: An experience report

Since 2001, Brazilian Guidelines for undergraduate medical education highlighted the need to include communication skills (CS) in the curriculum1. At the Federal University of Santa Catarina (South Brazil), CS were taught in the third year in theoretical classes as an overview of physician-patient relationships, and in a nonsystematic way in practical classes. In 2013, theory and practice were aligned, mediated by reflection, by adding three classes: CS overview; responding to strong emotions; and giving bad news. Two Portuguese translation of modules from DocCom, a web-based audiovisual learning resource on CS in Healthcare (AACH, DUCOM, 2005- 2015), were used. In 2015, we started to teach CS to the 53 students registered in the first semester of our medical course. We report on the program in the first semester of the course and students’ perceptions of it.

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