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CAES9740 Professional Communication in Clinical Practice

Coordinator: Dr. Letty CHAN

Course Description:

This course has the overall aim of preparing fourth-year MBBS students to meet the communicative demands of clinical clerkships. The main strands of the course include oral and written patient case presentations, and seminar presentations on ethics in clinical practice. As part of the extended learning goals of these strands, students will practise communicating differential diagnoses, justifying treatment or management plans, and clinical correspondence skills for referrals and medical reports. The course will be delivered through a variety of in-class activities such as group discussion and simulations, practice tasks and study of language in context.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate synthesis and coherence in written and oral presentations of patient case histories, apply the common conventions of the genre, and communicate degree of likelihood that matches their diagnostic judgment
  • Apply clinical correspondence skills to writing referrals and medical reports
  • Identify and analyse medical ethical issues arising from a clinical case, and present the analysis collaboratively in a seminar setting

Strategies:

  • Developing accuracy and concision for oral and written patient histories
  • Group collaboration in research and discussion
  • Developing effective presentation skills to inform and engage a target audience
  • Critically reflecting on experience in bedside teaching and writing up this reflection using genre features of reflective writing

Assessment Methods:

(with breakdown of percentage weighting of the various methods)

  • Oral Presentations (20%)
  • Project reports (45%)
  • Tutorial discussions (4-Year Only) (35%)