Summative assessment of undergraduates' communication competence in challenging doctor-patient encounters. Evaluation of the Düsseldorf CoMeD-OSCE.

Objective: To evaluate the summative assessment (OSCE) of a communication training programme for dealing with challenging doctor-patient encounters in the 4th study year.

Methods: Our OSCE consists of 4 stations (breaking bad news, guilt and shame, aggressive patients, shared decision making), using a 4-item global rating (GR) instrument. We calculated reliability coefficients for different levels, discriminability of single items and interrater reliability.

Implementation of the interdisciplinary curriculum Teaching and Assessing Communicative Competence in the fourth academic year of medical studies (CoMeD).

Introduction: Implementation of a longitudinal curriculum for training in advanced communications skills represents an unmet need in most German medical faculties, especially in the 4rth and 5th years of medical studies. The CoMeD project (communication in medical education Düsseldorf) attempted to establish an interdisciplinary program to teach and to assess communicative competence in the 4th academic year. In this paper, we describe the development of the project and report results of its evaluation by medical students.