From practice to lecture hall: Optimizing communication courses in medical education
Data files
Sep 10, 2025 version files 54.46 KB
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From_Practice_to_Lecture_Hall_Laudage.zip
49.34 KB
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README.md
5.13 KB
Abstract
Objective: Communication skills are a central component of the medical profession and are already taught during medical studies. However, the design of teaching content for doctor-patient communication across Germany is not based on empirical data collected from physicians' everyday professional practice, meaning optimal preparation for future work is not guaranteed. The aim of this study was to identify the need for relevant topic content and to use the limited teaching time in communication courses for these topics, providing educators with empirically based selection criteria.
Methodology: Using an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, the need for relevant topics was determined. All teaching practices of the University of Lübeck were invited in writing to participate in the study. Teaching physicians rated, using a topic catalogue, which topics they considered relevant for communication courses in medical studies, as well as how challenging and frequent these topics are in everyday professional life.
Results: The questionnaire was completed by 46 of the 70 invited teaching physicians (65.7%). Fifteen topics, including breaking bad news and communicating one’s own mistakes, were rated as relevant for communication courses.
Conclusion: The results provide tailored recommendations for case studies in communication courses that are relevant for medical students' later professional practice. A concrete implementation involves the selection of relevant topics, enabling the practice of frequently encountered but less challenging topics at the beginning of studies and more difficult but rarer topics in advanced studies.
Correspondence Address:
Friederike Laudage
Institute of Medical Psychology University Medical Centre Schleswig-Holstein,
Lübeck Campus Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23562 Lübeck Campus,
Germany
File List (From_Practice_to_Lecture_Hall_Laudage.zip)
- From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_description.pdf
- From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_mean_standarddeviation.csv
- From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_challenge.csv
- From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_incidence.csv
- From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_relevance.csv
- From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_demographicvariables.csv
- From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_furtherstudies.csv
- From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses in Medical Education_Laudage.txt
Description of documents
From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses in Medical Education_Laudage.txt Author and File information.
From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_description.pdf
This document provides the description of all variables used for the statistical analyses. In specific, the variable name, the description of variables, and the coding scheme are displayed in this document.
From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_mean_standarddeviation.csv
This document presents the statistical results for the variables ‘Challenge,’ ‘Frequency of Occurrence,’ and ‘Relevance,’ including mean values and standard deviations, with respect to the various domains of doctor–patient communication. The topic catalogue e.g. the various topics were ranked by their challenge, frequency of occurence in the daily practice of physicians and their relevance for a communication course in medical School.
From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_challenge.csv
This document contains the raw scores of the clinical physicians’ assessments regarding the level of challenge posed by individual topics within doctor–patient communication. The rating scale was defined as follows: very easy = 1, easy = 2, neither = 3, difficult = 4, very difficult = 5. If a topic was not rated, a missing value of 999 was assigned.
From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_frequency.csv
This document contains the raw scores of the clinical physicians’ assessments regarding the frequency of occurence of specific Topics in everday working life posed by individual topics within doctor–patient communication. The rating scale was defined as follows: very rare =1, rare = 2, occasional = 3, often = 4, very often = 5. If a topic was not rated, a missing value of 999 was assigned.
From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_relevance.csv
This document contains the raw scores of the clinical physicians’ assessments regarding the practical relevance of individual topics for communication courses in medical curricula. The rating scale was defined as follows: irrelevant = 1, rather irrelevant = 2, neither = 3, rather relevant = 4, relevant = 5. If a topic was not rated, a missing value of 999 was assigned.
From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_demographicvariables.csv
This document contains the pseudonymized demographic variables of the study participants, including age, gender, type of practice, specialization (medical specialty), and professional experience. In cases of missing responses, a value of 999 was assigned.
From Practice to Lecture Hall Optimizing Communication Courses_Laudage_dataset_furthereducation.csv
This document contains pseudonymized information on physicians’ continuing education behavior (participation in doctor–patient communication courses during medical school or as part of further training, and perceived preparedness for professional practice). In cases of missing responses, a value of 999 was assigned.
Human subjects data
Prior to conducting the present study, an ethics application was submitted to the Ethics Committee of the University of Lübeck (reference number 21-452), which was reviewed and approved. The same procedure had already been carried out for the pilot study conducted as part of the bachelor’s thesis (reference number 19-193A). Informed consent was given by all participants. The written informed consent forms of the participants were stored separately from the completed questionnaires. Only authorized personnel have access to the original data. All directly identifiable personal information is replaced by an identification code (pseudonymized). Data analysis is conducted on a computer with restricted access.