An Examination of Communication Skills Curricula across Two European Medical Universities

The advancement of communication skills and bedside manner training for medical students is crucial to modern medical curricula. In this study, we compared the curricula of two central European universities, the Medical University of Vienna and the Medical University of Basel. A systematic search of literature was performed identifying nine publications. These sources were used to identify major differences between the curricula. One setting integrates clinical specialty content from seven different specialties into communication training in theory and simulated-based training. The other provides specialized training for psychiatric patients only, strengthening reflective capacity. The first mentioned site implements more frequent Objective Structured Clinical Examinations. The increased frequencies support cumulative learning strategies in content delivery. Furthermore, it allows for repetition of core content which increases students’ knowledge and improves their skills’. Elucidating these and other differences and similarities may facilitate targeted improvement of the current communication skills training framework.