To zoom or not to zoom – the training of communicative competencies in times of Covid 19 at Witten/Herdecke University illustrated by the example of “sharing information”

Since October 2018, a longitudinal communication curriculum for medical students has been implemented at Witten/Herdecke University. In the summer semester 2020, the concept for the 4(th) preclinical semester included a practical training on “sharing information”, which consisted of three two-hour face-to-face sessions with simulated patients (SP). Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, teaching was changed to an inverted classroom concept combining asynchronous and synchronous teaching. The students worked at the beginning of the semester on an e-learning module of the learning platform docCom.deutsch on the topic “sharing information” using reflection and processing tasks. In two digital sessions, the students then were able to practice discharge interviews and discussions about risk communication illustrated by the example of screening methods for cancer prevention. In the first zoom session, students practiced in role-plays among themselves. In the second zoom session, they practiced with SP. The evaluation results revealed that 76% of the responding students considered working with the e-learning module as a good preparation for the interviews. According to the evaluation results, satisfaction with the Zoom meeting including SP contact was slightly higher than those with role-plays among themselves. Although the group atmosphere was rated by all responding students as conducive to learning, almost half of them confirmed that using Zoom significantly impaired the atmosphere (47%). In retrospect, the conversion of the communication training to a digital format worked better than expected from both the perspective of teachers and students. The students explicitly appreciated working with SP. From the teachers’ perspective, some specific aspects of successful communication were difficult to reflect on, e.g. non-verbal communication. The use of e-learning as a preparation for practical exercises has proven successful and will be continued in the future.