Reforms of the pre-graduate curriculum for medical students: the Bologna process and beyond.

For several years, all five medical faculties of Switzerland have embarked on a reform of their training curricula for two reasons: first, according to a new federal act issued in 2006 by the administration of the confederation, faculties needed to meet international standards in terms of content and pedagogic approaches; second, all Swiss universities and thus all medical faculties had to adapt the structure of their curriculum to the frame and principles which govern the Bologna process. This process is the result of the Bologna Declaration of June 1999 which proposes and requires a series of reforms to make European Higher Education more compatible and comparable, more competitive and more attractive for Europeans students. The present paper reviews some of the results achieved in the field, focusing on several issues such as the shortage of physicians and primary care practitioners, the importance of public health, community medicine and medical humanities, and the implementation of new training approaches including e-learning and simulation. In the future, faculties should work on several specific challenges such as: students' mobility, the improvement of students' autonomy and critical thinking as well as their generic and specific skills and finally a reflection on how to improve the attractiveness of the academic career, for physicians of both sexes.

Training medical students to conduct motivational interviewing: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effectiveness of motivational interviewing (MI) training among medical students. METHODS: All students (n=131) (year 5) at Lausanne Medical School, Switzerland were randomized into an experimental or a control group. After a training in basic communication skills (control condition), an 8-h MI training was completed by 84.8% students in the exprimental group. One week later, students in both groups were invited to meet with two standardized patients. MI skills were coded by blinded research assistants using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity 3.0. RESULTS: Superior MI performance was shown for trained versus control students, as demonstrated by higher scores for "Empathy" [p<0.001] and "MI Spirit" [p<0.001]. Scores were similar between groups for "Direction", indicating that students in both groups invited the patient to talk about behavior change. Behavior counts assessment demonstrated better performance in MI in trained versus untrained students regarding occurences of MI-adherent behavior [p<0.001], MI non-adherent behavior [p<0.001], Closed questions [p<0.001], Open questions [p=0.001], simple reflections [p=0.03], and Complex reflections [p<0.001]. Occurrences were similar between groups regarding "Giving information". CONCLUSION: An 8-h training workshop was associated with improved MI performance. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: These findings lend support for the implementation of MI training in medical schools.

Helping medical students to acquire a deeper understanding of truth-telling.

PROBLEM: Truth-telling is an important component of respect for patients' self-determination, but in the context of breaking bad news, it is also a distressing and difficult task. INTERVENTION: We investigated the long-term influence of a simulated patient-based teaching intervention, integrating learning objectives in communication skills and ethics into students' attitudes and concerns regarding truth-telling. We followed two cohorts of medical students from the preclinical third year to their clinical rotations (fifth year). Open-ended responses were analysed to explore medical students' reported difficulties in breaking bad news. CONTEXT: This intervention was implemented during the last preclinical year of a problem-based medical curriculum, in collaboration between the doctor-patient communication and ethics programs. OUTCOME: Over time, concerns such as empathy and truthfulness shifted from a personal to a relational focus. Whereas 'truthfulness' was a concern for the content of the message, 'truth-telling' included concerns on how information was communicated and how realistically it was received. Truth-telling required empathy, adaptation to the patient, and appropriate management of emotions, both for the patient's welfare and for a realistic understanding of the situation. LESSONS LEARNED: Our study confirms that an intervention confronting students with a realistic situation succeeds in making them more aware of the real issues of truth-telling. Medical students deepened their reflection over time, acquiring a deeper understanding of the relational dimension of values such as truth-telling, and honing their view of empathy.