Combining Interdisciplinary and International Medical Graduate Perspectives to Teach Clinical and Ethical Communication Using Multimedia

Abstract

In Australia, international medical graduates (IMGs) play a crucial role in addressing workforce shortages in healthcare. Their ability to deliver safe and effective healthcare in an unfamiliar cultural setting is intrinsically tied to effective communication. Hospital based medical clinical educators, who play an important role in providing communication training to IMGs, would benefit from practical resources and an understanding of the relevant pedagogies to address these issues in their teaching. This paper aims to examine the nature of an interdisciplinary collaboration to develop multimedia resources for teaching clinical and ethical communication to IMGs. We describe the processes and dynamics of the collaboration, and outline the methodologies from applied linguistics, medical education, and health ethics that we drew upon. The multimedia consist of three video clips of challenging communication scenarios as well as experienced IMGs talking about communication and ethics. The multimedia are supported by teaching guidelines that address relevant disciplinary concerns of the three areas of collaboration. In the paper’s discussion we point out the pre-conditions that facilitated the interdisciplinary collaboration. We propose that such collaborative approaches between the disciplines and participants can provide new perspectives to address the multifaceted challenges of clinical teaching and practice.