DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6q573n66x
title: From practice to lecture hall: Optimizing communication courses in medical education

description: Objective: Communication skills are a central component of the medical
 profession and are already taught during medical studies. However, the
 design of teaching content for doctor-patient communication across Germany
 is not based on empirical data collected from physicians' everyday
 professional practice, meaning optimal preparation for future work is not
 guaranteed. The aim of this study was to identify the need for relevant
 topic content and to use the limited teaching time in communication
 courses for these topics, providing educators with empirically based
 selection criteria. Methodology: Using an exploratory sequential
 mixed-methods design, the need for relevant topics was determined. All
 teaching practices of the University of Lübeck were invited in writing to
 participate in the study. Teaching physicians rated, using a topic
 catalogue, which topics they considered relevant for communication courses
 in medical studies, as well as how challenging and frequent these topics
 are in everyday professional life. Results: The questionnaire was
 completed by 46 of the 70 invited teaching physicians (65.7%). Fifteen
 topics, including breaking bad news and communicating one’s own mistakes,
 were rated as relevant for communication courses. Conclusion: The results
 provide tailored recommendations for case studies in communication courses
 that are relevant for medical students' later professional practice.
 A concrete implementation involves the selection of relevant topics,
 enabling the practice of frequently encountered but less challenging
 topics at the beginning of studies and more difficult but rarer topics in
 advanced studies.
description: # From practice to lecture hall: Optimizing communication courses in
 medical education Correspondence Address: Friederike Laudage Institute of
 Medical Psychology University Medical Centre Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck
 Campus Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23562 Lübeck Campus, Germany ### File List
 (From_Practice_to_Lecture_Hall_Laudage.zip) 1) From Practice to Lecture
 Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_description.pdf 2)
 From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication
 Courses_Laudage_dataset_mean_standarddeviation.csv 3) From Practice to
 Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication
 Courses_Laudage_dataset_challenge.csv 4) From Practice to Lecture Hall
 Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_incidence.csv 5) From
 Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication
 Courses_Laudage_dataset_relevance.csv 6) From Practice to Lecture Hall
 Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_demographicvariables.csv
 7) From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication
 Courses_Laudage_dataset_furtherstudies.csv 8) From Practice to Lecture
 Hall Optimizing Communication Courses in Medical Education_Laudage.txt ###
 Description of documents **From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing
 Communication Courses in Medical Education_Laudage.txt** Author and File
 information. **From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication
 Courses_Laudage_dataset_description.pdf** This document provides the
 description of all variables used for the statistical analyses. In
 specific, the variable name, the description of variables, and the coding
 scheme are displayed in this document. **From Practice to Lecture Hall
 Optimizing Communication
 Courses_Laudage_dataset_mean_standarddeviation.csv** This document
 presents the statistical results for the variables ‘Challenge,’ ‘Frequency
 of Occurrence,’ and ‘Relevance,’ including mean values and standard
 deviations, with respect to the various domains of doctor–patient
 communication. The topic catalogue e.g. the various topics were ranked by
 their challenge, frequency of occurence in the daily practice of
 physicians and their relevance for a communication course in medical
 School. **From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication
 Courses_Laudage_dataset_challenge.csv** This document contains the raw
 scores of the clinical physicians’ assessments regarding the level of
 challenge posed by individual topics within doctor–patient communication.
 The rating scale was defined as follows: very easy = 1, easy = 2, neither
 = 3, difficult = 4, very difficult = 5. If a topic was not rated, a
 missing value of 999 was assigned. **From Practice to Lecture Hall
 Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_frequency.csv** This
 document contains the raw scores of the clinical physicians’ assessments
 regarding the frequency of occurence of specific Topics in everday working
 life posed by individual topics within doctor–patient communication. The
 rating scale was defined as follows: very rare =1, rare = 2, occasional =
 3, often = 4, very often = 5. If a topic was not rated, a missing value of
 999 was assigned. **From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication
 Courses_Laudage_dataset_relevance.csv** This document contains the raw
 scores of the clinical physicians’ assessments regarding the practical
 relevance of individual topics for communication courses in medical
 curricula. The rating scale was defined as follows: irrelevant = 1, rather
 irrelevant = 2, neither = 3, rather relevant = 4, relevant = 5. If a topic
 was not rated, a missing value of 999 was assigned. **From Practice to
 Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication
 Courses_Laudage_dataset_demographicvariables.csv** This document contains
 the pseudonymized demographic variables of the study participants,
 including age, gender, type of practice, specialization (medical
 specialty), and professional experience. In cases of missing responses, a
 value of 999 was assigned. **From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing
 Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_furthereducation.csv** This document
 contains pseudonymized information on physicians’ continuing education
 behavior (participation in doctor–patient communication courses during
 medical school or as part of further training, and perceived preparedness
 for professional practice). In cases of missing responses, a value of 999
 was assigned. ## Human subjects data Prior to conducting the present
 study, an ethics application was submitted to the Ethics Committee of the
 University of Lübeck (reference number 21-452), which was reviewed and
 approved. The same procedure had already been carried out for the pilot
 study conducted as part of the bachelor’s thesis (reference number
 19-193A). Informed consent was given by all participants. The written
 informed consent forms of the participants were stored separately from the
 completed questionnaires. Only authorized personnel have access to the
 original data. All directly identifiable personal information is replaced
 by an identification code (pseudonymized). Data analysis is conducted on a
 computer with restricted access.