Doctors at Weill Cornell Medicine - Qatar (WCM-Q) and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) have published a book to help medical students and postgraduate doctors enhance their ability to communicate with patients and pass clinical exams.
The 290-page book presents 50 detailed scenarios for postgraduate doctors to enhance their ability to put patients at ease, take an accurate and comprehensive patient history, make the correct diagnosis and then communicate the diagnosis and treatment plan to the patient in a reassuring manner.
Dr Rayaz Malik of WCM-Q and HMC, Dr Wanis H Ibrahim and Dr Mushtaq Ahmed of HMC, and Dr Mohamed A Waheed of Northampton General Hospital in England, who was formerly an HMC physician, drew on their collective experience as practising physicians and postgraduate examiners to write the book, titled History Taking and Communication Skill Stations for Internal Medicine Examinations.
Dr Malik, professor of Medicine and Consultant Physician at WCM-Q and HMC said: “Being able to communicate effectively and compassionately with patients is a very important skill, that even the very best doctors often struggle with. We wrote the book to help students and junior doctors develop communication skills that match their excellence as clinicians so that they can reach the very highest standards of patient care.
“I want to give complete credit to my colleagues Dr Wanis, Dr Mushtaq and Dr Waheed for their tremendous work on this collaborative project.”
Many highly skilled postgraduate doctors who have proven themselves to be good clinicians often struggle to pass the compulsory history taking and communication skills components of their Arab Board or MRCP exams. This can be particularly problematic for non-native English speakers but also poses significant challenges for native speakers, as conducting a conversation while simultaneously assimilating large amounts of complex information requires a great deal of mental agility.
The doctors devised a new, comprehensive seven-step approach to facilitate communication with patients whilst making the consultation more systematic and effective.