oa Challenges Facing Introduction of Communication Skills into Medical Education in Iraq

Introduction: Communication skills “CS” have no clear curriculum in most Iraqi medical colleges. This shortcoming of education is reflected in a doctor-centered approach in Iraq.

Aim: To identify challenges facing introduction of CS into medical education in Iraq.

Methods: Feedback form including the main challenges on introducing CS was distributed online to healthcare professionals who have participated in training of CS courses.

Results: Ninety-three healthcare professionals responded; 55 males and 38 females; 46 faculty members and 47 practitioners with part-time teaching. Doctors constituted 92 % of the respondents from different disciplines, and 75.2% had more than 15 years’ experience in practice. Frequency of educational and practical challenges were 40% and 44% respectively. Lack of appropriate curriculum constitutes 42% of educational challenges. Challenges include doctors' training in western models which are difficult to transform the interview into a dialogue that harmonizes Iraqi culture and social barriers (16% of respondents). A biomedical approach (22%) and lack of resources (22%) presented other challenges, while 14% of the participants mentioned high proportion of students to faculty members. Challenges related to practice includes a doctor-centered approach (47%) and neglect of patients' psychosocial needs (30%). Factors related to patients revealed that 46% of the challenges were related to health literacy and 26% to patients’ behavior for seeking medical advice. The presence of more than one person at interview was the most difficult factor for successful interview (14%), in addition to the passive role of the patient during interview (13%). There is no significance statistical difference in challenges in relation to specialty, workplace, sex and years of practice.

Conclusion: Multiple levels of challenges facing introduction of CS into medical education were revealed which need systematic review in the educational curricula and practice of medicine.