Medical students' views and experiences of methods of teaching and learning communication skills.

This study aims to explore undergraduate medical students' views and experiences of methods of teaching and learning communication skills. Five focus groups were conducted with 32 students, with representatives from each of the 5 years of the medical degree, at the University of Nottingham, UK. The audiotapes were transcribed in full and the transcripts were theme analysed independently by two analysts. Two themes relating to methods of teaching and learning communication skills emerged from the analysis. Students had mixed views about instructional methods of teaching and learning communication skills such as lectures. Students seemed to prefer experiential methods of learning communication skills such as role-playing with simulated patients and communicating with real patients in a clinical context. These findings have a number of educational and research implications and these are discussed in this paper.