Abdulsalam Sultan

ABSTRACT

Challenges facing introduction of communication skills into medical education in Iraq

Abdulsalam Sultan

AlKindy Medical College

Sawsan Issa Habeeb

Basrah medical college

Introduction: Communication skills “CS” has no clear curriculum in most Iraqi medical colleges. This shortcoming of education is reflected on doctor centered approach.
Aim: to identify challenges facing introduction of CS into medical education.
Methods: Feedback form including the main challenges on introducing CS was distributed online for healthcare professionals who had been participated in training of CS courses.
Results: Ninety-three healthcare professionals were responded; 55 were males and 38 were females, faculty members were 46 & practitioners with part time teaching were 47. Doctors constitutes 92 % of the responders 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 related to doctors' training on western model which is difficult to transform interview into a dialogue that harmonizes Iraqi culture and social barriers in frequency of 16%. While biomedical approach and lack of resources represent 22%, 21% of challenges respectively and 14% of the participants mentioned high proportion of students to faculty members. Challenges related to practice includes doctors centered approach and neglection of patients' psychosocial aspects in frequency of 47% and 30% respectively.
Factors related to patients revealed that 46% of challenges related to health literacy and 26% to patient’s behavior for seeking medical advice as well as the presence of more than one person at interview was the most difficult factor for successful interview in 14%, in addition to passive role of patient during interview in 13 %. 

BIO

o D.O.B. 7/1/56.  Married from a pediatrician colleague. Three sons; first newly graduated doctor died by road traffic accident on 2013, the second dentist & the third oil engineer, with two grandchildren, lives all his life in Baghdad. 
o Internist DM and Social Anthropologist (BA).
o Sultan introduced the concepts and techniques of doctor-patient communication  and experiential learning into Iraqi medical teaching environment through his writing, teaching and tireless advocacy to healthcare professionals throughout Iraq " Hundreds of courses, workshops and  Webinars" and producing for the first time dozens of video recording interviews with simulated and real patients and analyzing them with a new technique (Agenda Led Outcome Based Analysis, ALOBA) in his training the trainers courses and workshops since 2001till now.
o Member of Advisory committee and national representative of International Association for Communication in Healthcare 2021.
o Communication skills Lecturer at Al-Kindy Medical college for under and postgraduate studies 2020-2021.
o CS Courses Manager at Iraqi Medical Association for newly graduates doctors 2018- till now “as an obligatory course for membership”.    
o Introduction of CS teaching, curriculum building, monitoring and Expert for Iraqi Medical colleges " Basrah, Kufa, Hawler" since 2016-with annual refreshing courses.

There is no significance statistical difference of challenges in relation to specialty, workplace, sex and years of practice.
Conclusion: Multiple levels of challenges facing introduction of CS into medical education which needs systematic review in educational curricula and practice of medicine.