ABEM Consensus for the Brazilian Medical Schools’ Communication Curriculum

Abstract: Introduction: Communication is an essential competence for the physician and other professional categories, and must be developed their professional training. The creation of a communication project including a Brazilian consensus aimed to subsidize medical schools in preparing medical students to communicate effectively with Brazilian citizens, with plural intra and inter-regional characteristics, based on the professionalism and the Brazilian Unified System (SUS) principles. Objective: The objective of this manuscript is to present the consensus for the teaching of communication in Brazilian medical schools. Method: The consensus was built collaboratively with 276 participants, experts in communication, faculty, health professionals and students from 126 medical schools and five health institutions in face-to-face conference meetings and biweekly or monthly virtual meetings. In the meetings, the participants’ experiences and bibliographic material were shared, including international consensuses, and the consensus under construction was presented, with group discussion to list new components for the Brazilian consensus, followed by debate with everyone, to agree on them. The final version was approved in a virtual meeting with invitation to all participants in July 2021. After the submission, several changes were required, which demanded new meetings to review the consensus final version. Result: The consensus is based on assumptions that communication should be relationship-centered, embedded on professionalism, grounded on the SUS principles and social participation, and based on the National Guidelines for the undergraduate medical course, theoretical references and scientific evidence. Specific objectives to develop communication competence in the students are described, covering: theoretical foundations; literature search and its critical evaluation; documents drafting and editing; intrapersonal and interpersonal communication in the academicscientific environment, in health care and in health management; and, communication in diverse clinical contexts. The inclusion of communication in the curriculum is recommended from the beginning to the end of the course, integrated with other contents and areas of knowledge. Conclusion: It is expected that this consensus contributes the review or implementation of communication in Brazilian medical schools’ curricula.