The competent graduate listens attentively and communicates with patients, families, and health care team members. The graduate establishes the rapport necessary to form and maintain a therapeutic relationship with the patient.
Students communicate effectively in informal written communications, such as descriptive reports.
In dealing with patients, students are expected only to follow prescribed elementary processes for the interview and write-up, such as one would find in a basic interviewing handbook. Students communicate effectively in formal written communication, such as history and physical examination write-ups, progress reports, essay exams, term papers, and formal reports. Students demonstrate competence in oral communication in the context of small groups, such as work rounds in the hospital or small group discussions in seminars. The student should be able to integrate clinical reasoning into the interviewing. This would be reflected in a less rigid and structured approach in which clues and competing hypotheses would be pursued in a rich, branching network of associations.