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Abstract
Background: Some International Medical Graduates (IMGs) need to develop language and communication skills for patient-centred care but have limited opportunities to do so.
Aim: To develop an evidence-based, language and communication skills web resource for IMG doctors and supervisors, focussing on culturally challenging patient interviews.
Methods: Forty-eight IMGs participated in four practice OSCEs. We video-recorded the interactions and applied discourse analytic methods to investigate salient language and communication features.
Results: The findings from the OSCE workshops showed that many participants demonstrated aspects of patient-centred interviewing but were hindered by limited interactional competence to elicit information and negotiate behaviours as well as a limited repertoire of English grammar, vocabulary, and phonological phrasing for effective interaction. These findings guided the choice of content and pedagogy for the development of the web-based resource Doctors Speak Up.
Conclusion: Evaluation and uptake of the Doctors Speak Up website confirm the demand for a resource combining targeted communication skills and language instruction. Over 19 500 users visited the website between March 2012 and November 2013.
Acknowledgements
Dr Sean Fabri (Western Health) for his ongoing advice and participation throughout the project; colleagues from the Medical Education Unit who were assessors in the workshops; the International Medical Graduates who participated in the research; and in particular Ms Cathy Bow for her engagement and expert project management.
Declaration of interest: This project was funded by a 2010–2012 Department of Health, Victoria, Australia, Developing Organisational Capacity grant.