Grant Recipient
Nadine Furtado, School of Optometry and Vision Science
(Project timeline: November 2024 - October 2025)
Description
It is crucial for clinicians to have the necessary communication skills to appropriately connect with patients. Establishing a good clinician – patient rapport has shown to be an important factor in patient compliance and health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to implement and evaluate a virtual, asynchronous Communication Module to educate Optometry students on the nuances of communicating and interacting with patients. This novel online educational module will be developed on LEARN to teach students the basic requirements for effective communication, particularly in a clinical setting. Pre- and post-surveying of students will be completed to evaluate the outcome of the communication training in assisting Optometry students with improving their communication skills. This innovative approach to teaching effective communication has the potential to not only benefit the University of Waterloo Optometry program, but also be a model which could be adopted by other healthcare professional programs.
Project Objectives
- To determine the importance that Optometry students place on communication skills in a clinical setting.
- To develop, implement and evaluate a virtual, asynchronous Communication Module to educate Optometry students on the nuances of communicating and interacting with patients. (No funding requested)
- To assess and demonstrate how the proposed Communication Module can assist Optometry students with improving their communication skills in the following areas:
- Active listening
- Oral communication skills
- Non-verbal communication skills
- Cultural awareness