title: Implementation of the interdisciplinary curriculum Teaching and Assessing Communicative Competence in the fourth academic year of medical studies (CoMeD).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Implementation of a longitudinal curriculum for training in advanced communications skills represents an unmet need in most German medical faculties, especially in the 4rth and 5th years of medical studies. The CoMeD project (communication in medical education Düsseldorf) attempted to establish an interdisciplinary program to teach and to assess communicative competence in the 4th academic year. In this paper, we describe the development of the project and report results of its evaluation by medical students.
  
  
  METHODS
  Teaching objectives and lesson formats were developed in a multistage process. A teaching program for simulated patients (SP) was built up and continuous lecturer trainings were estabilshed. Several clinical disciplines co-operated for the purpose of integrating the communication training into the pre-existing clinical teaching curriculum. The CoMeD project was evaluated using feedback-forms after each course.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Until now, six training units for especially challenging communication tasks like "dealing with aggression" or "breaking bad news" were implemented, each unit connected with a preliminary tutorial or e-learning course. An OSCE (objective structured clinical examination) with 4 stations was introduced. The students' evaluation of the six CoMeD training units showed the top or second-best rating in more than 80% of the answers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Introducing an interdisciplinary communication training and a corresponding OSCE into the 4th year medical curriculum is feasible. Embedding communication teaching in a clinical context and involvement of clinicians as lecturers seem to be important factors for ensuring practical relevance and achieving high acceptance by medical students.
authors.affiliation: University Düsseldorf, Medical Faculty, Institute of General Practice, Düsseldorf, Germany. achim.mortsiefer@med.uni-duesseldorf.de
authors.forename: Achim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mortsiefer
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rotthoff
authors.forename: Regine
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schmelzer
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Immecke
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ortmanns
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: in der Schmitten
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Altiner
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karger
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D058006:General Practice / Q000193:education*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D058025:Interdisciplinary Studies; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D016544:Patient Simulation; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011611:Psychosomatic Medicine / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical