Are doctors' soft skills adequately supported by medical curricula?  A study on medical schools in Turkiye.

Hayriye Nur Gorkemli

doi:10.6018/edumed.719691

Authors

Hayriye Nur Gorkemli Selcuk University, Turkey https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5506-1343

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6018/edumed.719691

Keywords: soft skills, medical education, medical curriculum, curriculum analysis

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the extent to which soft skills, which are an important element that complements the technical skills of physicians, are included in the curricula of medical schools in Turkiye. The websites of all medical schools in Turkiye were accessed and the curricula of the 2023-2024 academic year were examined using the content analysis method. Based on the categories of soft skills identified by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education, it was analyzed whether these courses were included in the curricula and in which categories and medical education periods they were offered. It was found that all the medical schools under study had elective or compulsory soft skills courses. However, 12.3% of universities did not include a compulsory soft skills course in their curriculum. While 83% of the universities concentrated soft skills courses exclusively in the first three years of medical education, only 2.3% of medical schools spread these courses over the entire education period, including the last three years. Examining the distribution of courses by category revealed that courses in the field of ‘Communication’ were the most common, followed by courses in the categories of ‘Ethics’ and ‘Lifelong Learning and Information Technologies’. Courses in the categories ‘Critical Thinking and Problem Solving’, ‘Leadership’ and ‘Teamwork’ were found to be significantly underrepresented. It is recommended to design the curricula of medical faculties to include all categories of soft skills and to spread them programmatically throughout the educational process.

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