The East Anglia Deanery Communication Skills Teaching Project--six years on

Abstract

This paper describes the Cascade Communication Skills Teaching Project, which is a programme of facilitator training enabling communication skills teaching in the consultation to general practitioners to be cascaded throughout the former East Anglia Deanery. The paper also explores the project's educational and organizational effectiveness. The programme is based on an ongoing training programme for a cohort of around 30 district-based communication skills facilitators, and was set up in the autumn of 1995. These facilitators are now able to act as a resource to cascade high-quality communication skills teaching into vocational training schemes, trainer education and the continuing professional development of established general practitioners throughout each district in the region. The project has now been extended into medical student teaching, specialist teaching at junior and senior level, and multi-disciplinary teaching.