written communication skills (wcs) communication skills... · written communication skills (wcs)-...

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION SKILLS

(WCS)- METHODOLOGY AND

ASSESSMENT

Dr. Saeed Farooq

PhD, MCPS(Psych), FCPS(Psych)

Professor Department of Psychiatry

PGMI, Peshawar ,

&

Visiting Professor Staffordshire University,

UK.

Communication skills: A core

competency Communication skills are one of the core

competencies in medical education recognised by

GMC, UK and Accreditation Council for Medical

Education Council, US.

Almost all training programmes now have

mandatory communication skills like FCPS training

programme.

WCS not part of communication

skills??

How many programmes have written communication skills as part of the training?

Very little formal training

In a review, only 15 of 101 medical schools in US offered formal writing courses

Bjork and Oye. Writing courses in American medical schools. J Med Edu, 1983, 58, 112-116

Assessment of WCS

The ECFMG Clinical Skills Assessment (CSA)assesses Patient Note (PN)exercise after a 15 min interview with standardised patient.

Specifically used to assess candidates’ ability to summarize and synthesize the data. About 75000 patient notes are reviewed and assessed by physicians anually.

Boulet et al found this to have adequate psychometric properties.

Bouelt et al, 2004 . Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Prac. 9(1),47-60

Where Written Communication Skills

are needed?

Patients & Carer

Professionals and Colleagues

Instructions/advice

Educational materials

Written Communication skills

(WCS) – Clinical settings

Prescriptions-pharmacists

Letters to GP

History

Professional reports

Requests for opinion/ calls

Written Communication skills (WCS) –

Management and administration

Clear written communication is essence of

administration and leadership.

Business plans, PC 1

Memos

Proposals

Reports: disciplinary and expert briefings

Written Communication skills (WCS) –

Education & Training

Essay questions

Dissertations/thesis

Scientific Articles

Reviews

Other forms

Problems with written

communication skills at present

Increasing emphasis on just recall, little analysis or

application

MCQS, EMQS, SEQs

Little informal and continuing assessments which

includes essays or assignments requiring scientific

writing

Problems with written

communication skills at present

Too much emphasis on curriculum

Lack of general reading and reproduce

Lacking or inadequate incentives and assessment

Assessment of content, rather form of expression, if any assessment.

Problems in Non English speaking

countries

Medium of Instruction in Education: English but no or poor training in written English for scientific training

Too much emphasis on formal rules and grammar rather than expression

A challenge for you - WCS of

different nature

Can you decipher this:

My smmr hols wr CWOT

I wntd 2 go hm ASAP, 2C my M8s again

Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5812010

What needs to be done

WCS must become part of curriculum

Emphasis in assessment on expression, form and

quality of communication

Improve vocabulary, encourage written

communication skills as part of communication skills

An example of written

communication skills: Scientific

writing module in MHR, KMU

Scientific writing module in MHR

Methodology and Contents

Assessment

Feedback from students

Methodology and Contents

Covers whole of scientific writing from case reports

to systematic review.

Small group presentations, lectures on qualities of

good scientific writings and English

Group work and hands on rewriting the different

sections of already published papers.

Feedback on students’ writings

The ABC of the course:

Characteristics of good scientific

writing

Accurate, Authentic

Brief, Bold

Clear, concise

Methodology

Lectures on scientific English and consents of a

scientific paper.

Four groups given one paper and asked to identify

the strong and weak points.

Each group then asked to rewrite a different section

of the article in the light of instructions given in the

lectures.

Group presentation of the rewritten section

Assessment

Assessment of the group work.

MCQs and SEQs on the written communication skills

and the published papers.

Feedback

Excellent feedback from students

The final assessment covered all the course that was

taught to us!

Conclusion

WCS is essential part of medical training,

especially in non English speaking countries.

Poor training in WCS may be one of the major

reasons for poor scientific outputs from these

countries

WCS is badly neglected aspect of communication

skills, and medical curricula in general

Conclusions

The present assessments and evaluation methods

completely overlook the WCS, made worse by

evaluation methodologies such MCQs

It is possible to develop the course contents and

evaluation methods for WCS, as demonstrated by

our successful experience in the MHR module

ThanQ for ur 8ention!!

Any Qs?

Contact: sfarooqlrh@yahoo.com