Communicating anatomy and development to a patient‐centered audience

Medical schools have responded to the call for an enhancement in student communication skills by dramatically increasing the time devoted to teaching oral communication skills. Unfortunately the ability to communicate with patients through written means has not been a focus in many programs, despite its fundamental importance in creating understanding of medicine within the general population. At one medical school in the UK, we have explored two ways in which patient‐centered written communication can be integrated into part of the early training years of medical students. As part of the summative assessment program in year two, students are ‘commissioned’ by the editor of a fictitious newspaper to write a short lay statement in response to a letter from a member of the public regarding a clinical condition associated with locomotor anatomy. In another assessment students are asked to design and produce an information leaflet directed at the patient or their family on a specific birth defect. In both cases students are required to write in lay terms describing what the particular condition is, how it arises and the consequence of the condition to the well being of the patient. The resulting articles have been assessed as very effective and quantitative and qualitative feedback has demonstrated that students find it a challenging yet very useful experience in developing their written communication skills.