Enhancing the relationship and improving communication between adolescents and their health care providers: a school based intervention by medical students.

Objective: To develop, implement and evaluate a workshop to help adolescents develop independent and active relationships with their physicians.

Methods: A needs-assessment survey informed the development of a workshop delivered by medical student volunteers and incorporated into the career and personal planning curriculum of high schools in Vancouver, Canada.

Results: Over a 6-year period, 64 workshops were delivered by 181 medical students to 1651 high school students in six schools.

Conclusion: The workshop is acceptable, do-able, effective and sustainable, characteristics that arise from the mutual benefits to all the groups involved: the medical school, the school board, the medical students, the high school teachers and students. The workshop provides a model for providing health care education to adolescents in the community.

Practice Implications: Teaching adolescents the importance of good doctor-patient communication encourages them to take ongoing responsibility for their health care and is an alternative route to direct health care education.