The views of general practitioner tutors on developing medical students' communication and management skills.

Community-based education and communication skills training are key aspects of modern undergraduate medical curricula. In primary care settings medical students are able to learn and practice communication skills; however, the management of patients using a shared decision-making model is often neglected. The aim of this paper is to consider the views of GP undergraduate tutors on how medical students may learn about patient management and shared decision making, taking into account the GPs' experiences of teaching and whether they act as role models by using a shared decision-making model themselves. The GPs' views will inform the planning of future primary care attachments. This is a study using qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with the 11 GP undergraduate tutors who teach medical students in years 2, 3 and 4 of a five year undergraduate curriculum. We identified three main themes with subsidiaries. GPs enjoy teaching and have useful ideas about how to involve students in patient management. On the whole they try and encourage patients to share decisions about management and have developed strategies to decide how much information to share with patients. The GPs feel that over the years, with changes in undergraduate curricula, the students' communication skills have improved. For students to become better skilled at shared decision making with patients, they need to have longer attachments in primary care with the ability to follow up patients. We concluded that while GPs are being asked to take on increasing amounts of undergraduate teaching, they are keen to help students learn consultation skills and are good role models for shared decision-making strategies. Longer attachments in primary care have implications for workload and curriculum planning but appear to be one method to help students manage patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]