Interesting Comment on Doctor-Patient Communication

[Guest guest]

I am reading through a bunch of articles on doctor-patient communication

issues for my paper for my communications class. I am currently reading a

16-page transcript of the radio talk-show Talk of the Nation on National

Public Radio from July 21, 2003. In this particular show, the host Neal

Conan is interviewing Pugnaire of the University of Massachusetts

Medical School about their curriculum to teach medical students to

communicate effectively with their patients. The show is also a call-in

format and I found the following call from Esther, a medical student,

interesting...

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ESTHER: I was calling because, you know, as our knowledge of science is

growing, like we have an expediential amount of more information they want

to each us medical students. And therefore I'm wondering, like, are you

willing to give up the minutia of things like Krebs cycles so we can spend

more time working on our communication skills?

CONAN: Well, Dr. Pugnaire, I assume you get a lot of students who say, 'Hey,

listen, this ain't brain surgery. I've got to concentrate on other things.'

Dr. PUGNAIRE: Right. And that's part of the challenges, just as Esther said,

it's--you know, medical school is still only four years long and the amount

of information is expedientially increasing. So the question is: What is

fundamental and what is essential to get across in that critical four-year

formative period? And what can we hold back on? And that continues to be a

challenge for us. But one of the things that I think is happening in

education is that we're increasingly becoming comfortable with not teaching

students what to learn or what they need to know, but teaching them how to

access the information to be able to answer those questions. So hopefully,

we will, as we equip our students to better learn independently and identify

their own learning needs, some of those minutia may drop out and Esther may

feel a little bit more relieved with respect to the burden of information

that she has to master.

ESTHER: At this time, it's still, like, hundreds of brain slices and

identifying tiny little structures that, you know, we all forgot a week

after our exam.

--------------

And Esther sums up my whole feeling on EDS in medical school - EDS is just

another thing they forget a week after they take the exam.

-Barb

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 1/22/2004 1:13:00 AM Eastern Standard Time,

kdavis@... writes:

importance of communication was never supported.

It is definitely supported elsewhere in the discussion. The transcript is

16 pages and much of it deals with how important it is to teach

communication to med students and the methods they are using to try to teach

them. I just didn't have room for the whole article.

-Barb

Whoops, sorry Barb!! Thanks,

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 1/22/2004 1:13:00 AM Eastern Standard Time,

kdavis@... writes:

importance of communication was never supported.

It is definitely supported elsewhere in the discussion. The transcript is

16 pages and much of it deals with how important it is to teach

communication to med students and the methods they are using to try to teach

them. I just didn't have room for the whole article.

-Barb

Whoops, sorry Barb!! Thanks,