Ethics competences in the undergraduate medical education curriculum: the Spanish experience.

Aim .To investigate if there are differences in medical ethics education between different schools of medicine in Spain, specifically between private and public schools and between recently founded schools and older ones. METHOD: The curricula of medical degrees from all Spanish faculties were reviewed for the 2014/2015 academic year, identifying subjects concerning bioethics, deontology, and ethics. We identified the type of teaching, format and method of the course, the number of credits and hours, and the school year of each subject. An analysis with descriptive parameters and the Cohen's coefficient (d) was performed. RESULTS: All medical schools in Spain (n=44) were included. A mean of 3.64 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) credits was specifically devoted to ethical values teaching in Spain. Private medical schools offered more credits than public ones (6.51 ECTS vs 2.88 ECTS, relevant difference: d=2.06>>0.8), and the 10 most recently founded medical schools offered more credits than the 10 oldest (5.86 ECTS vs 2.63 ECTS, relevant difference: d=1.43>0.8). A mean of 36.75 hours was dedicated to ethics education. CONCLUSIONS: Although ethics education is incorporated into the training of future Spanish physicians, there is still notable heterogeneity between different medical schools in the time devoted to this topic.

[Communication skills in the curriculum of Medical students from Spain (1990-2014): From the Primary Health Care to the Bologna Plan. A descriptive study]. / Competencia en comunicación en el currículo del estudiante de Medicina de España (1990-2014): de la Atención Primaria al Plan Bolonia. Un estudio descriptivo.

OBJECTIVES: Analyse the currently situation of teaching in communication skills in the Spanish Medical Schools (MS) and the grade of implementation from the recommended by the National Agency of Evaluation of the Quality and Accreditation. DESIGN: Descriptive-comparative, transversal and quantitative-qualitative study. SITUATION: University teaching field. SAMPLE: The whole population of MS in Spain. INCLUSION CRITERIA: teaching during the academic year 2013-2014 the Degree in Medicine homologated by the National Agency of Evaluation of the Quality and Accreditation and offering information of their educational plans and teaching guides (online, telephonic or e-mail). VARIABLES: 1) Existence of courses about communication skills; 2) type of teaching; 3) format of the course; 4) credits; 5) length, and 6) grade. They were analysed with descriptive parameters and the Cohen's coefficient (d). RESULTS: Forty-two MS: 10 privates and 32 publics. Thirty MS (71.43%) presented at least one course of communication skills. The 78.12% of the public MS contained this kind of teaching as an entire course versus the 50.00% of the private MS. The national average by MS was 2.77 (σ=2.41), lower than the 5.0 credits recommended by the the National Agency of Evaluation of the Quality and Accreditation (relevant difference: d=1.63>>0,8). The 63.63% contained this teaching over the second cycle (mode: second degree). CONCLUSIONS: The course loads in terms of credits destined to this skills has increased considerably from 1990 to 2014 (d= 1,43>>0,8). However, it has not been completely established yet the recommendations about this aspect in most of the Spanish MS. The public universities seem to be more aware of this teaching. Furthermore, it would be interesting strengthen this skills in the sixth grade.

Communication skills training in undergraduate nursing programs in Spain.

OBJECTIVES: of the present cross sectional study were to analyze the offer of subjects with communication skills in the nursing degree in Spain and to describe the distribution of these subjects. Documentary, systematic and independent search of web pages from Spanish universities was carried out to collect the following variables: subjects with communication skills, course in which the subject is taught, type of teaching (exclusive or combined), type of subject (compulsory or optional) and number of credits on communication skills. Although an average of 3.6 subjects per center was offered, most of the subjects were combined and with little communication content load. In one third of the centers, the offer was below 2.3 credits. Only 1 in 6 centers had exclusive communication skills subjects, and a quarter of them were optional. The teaching load of communication contents was highest in optional subjects. The offer of communication skills contents in Spanish Nursing Schools was scarce and very heterogeneous between centers and between courses in a center, with excessive presence of combined and optional subjects. Our results may be useful when developing the teaching guides for subjects with communication skills, as well as when defining communication competencies in the different Nursing Schools.