Abstract
Just as communication is a skill that must be learned, teaching communication skills requires a methodology based upon known educational principles. “Positive psychology,” which emphasizes skills needed to produce results; adult learning theory, which emphasizes the “activation” and motivation of learners; and social learning theory, which promotes the importance of practice in learning skills; all inform the implementation of specific techniques to promote learning. These techniques include providing realistic examples of teaching scenarios; ensuring a relevance to common challenges faced by learners; a respect for individual learners’ skill level; providing cognitive “road maps” that guide the learner as “how to do it” in communicating effectively; respect for the self-generated goals of the learner; and an opportunity for learners to practice in a safe environment. An efficient way of teaching communication skills is to apply these principles in a small group setting where learners can support and learn from one another. This chapter describes a teaching format based upon these concepts applied to a course for teaching communication skills to medical oncology fellows. It illustrates how the process of teaching oncology attending physicians from major cancer centers to teach communication skills was implemented using a “retreat” model with distance learning. It identifies skills necessary to be a teacher of communication skills by describing not only the skills targeted for development in the fellows but in a parallel fashion the skills applied by the faculty themselves in promoting the development of the learners.
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Acknowledgments
The author would like to Acknowledge the Principle Investigator of Oncotalk Teach Dr. Anthony Back whose vision, inspiration and organizational skills were responsible for the design and implementation of Oncotalk Teach. Co-investigators Bob Arnold, Kelly Edwards and James Tulsky were awesome in their roles as facilitators for the faculty participants.
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Baile, W.F. (2013). How to Train Teachers of Communication Skills: The Oncotalk Teach Model. In: Surbone, A., Zwitter, M., Rajer, M., Stiefel, R. (eds) New Challenges in Communication with Cancer Patients. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3369-9_24
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