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The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired us, as medical students, to reflect upon the communication training we have received in medical school and the obstacles we have faced in the clinic due to COVID-19. We hold the view that our communication training is inadequate; this view is driven by our limited exposure to patients, a situation that is currently being exacerbated by the pandemic. The medical curriculum must be inclusive of all groups and take into account the new challenges arising during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Communication is vital in improving health outcomes, especially in marginalized communities such as non-English speakers and people with impaired hearing. Indeed, patients from these groups have lower satisfaction and outcomes in most health care settings [
The use of masks is now widespread in every health care setting. This can be an unsettling communication barrier, especially for people with hearing impairment or limited English language skills [
To minimize infection exposure, the use of telephone consultations in primary care has increased dramatically [
Due to the new challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, already ill-equipped students are encountering more challenges. It should also be noted that many medical students were away from the clinical setting for almost 6 months, further reducing their ability to practice and develop communication skills. Our current curriculum only includes a few simulation sessions in the entire course; these sessions feature monolingual English-speaking actors with unimpaired hearing. Based on student feedback, we encourage medical schools to provide more virtual sessions to teach communication and also to introduce teaching tailored to consider mask-wearing and language barriers. We hope this will become a core facet of the medical school curriculum. We believe that establishing this form of teaching has the potential to shape a generation of medical students who are skilled at communicating with a diverse range of people. If this gap in health care is not urgently addressed, it will only widen.
None declared.