Introducing Mass Communications Strategies to Medical Students: A Novel Short Session for Fourth-Year Students

PROBLEM: The World Health Organization calls on all with quality medical information to share it with the public and combat health misinformation; however, U.S. medical schools do not currently teach students effective communication with lay audiences about health. Most physicians have inadequate training in mass communication strategies.

APPROACH: In August 2018, a novel 90-minute class at the University of Minnesota Medical School introduced fourth-year medical students to basic skills for communicating with lay audiences through mass media. Instructors were physicians with experience interacting with the general public via radio, op-ed articles, social media, print media, television, and community and legislative advocacy. After a 20-minute lecture and sharing of instructors' personal experiences, students completed two 30-minute small-group activities. They identified communications objectives and talking points for a health topic, drafting these as Tweets or an op-ed article outline, then presented talking points in a mock press conference with their peers, practicing skills just learned. Pre-and post-surveys documented students' previous engagement and comfort with future engagement with mass media messaging.

OUTCOMES: Over one week, 142 students participated in 6 separate classes, and 127 completed both pre- and post-surveys. Before the course, only 6% (7/127) of students had comfortably engaged with social media and 14% (18/127) had engaged with traditional media in their professional roles. After the course, students self-reported an increase in their comfort, perceived ability, and likelihood of using specific communications skills to advocate for their patients (all P < .001).

NEXT STEPS: The course will be expanded into a 5-session thread for third- and fourth-year medical students spread over 2 years. This thread will include meeting physicians who engage with lay audiences; identifying best practices for mass health communication; identifying bias and misinformation; "dos and don'ts" of social media; and communication skills for legislative advocacy.