Communication Skills Unit

Institute of Medicine (IOM) realizing the need for effective communication skills for physicians in Nepal decided to include it in its undergraduate program. It all began with a workshop in June 2007 following which the Communication Skills (CS) Unit was formed. The CS Unit includes faculty from the departments of Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Community Medicine, Pediatrics and Anatomy with administrative and logistic support from the National Center of Health Professions Education. The communication skills curriculum has been developed and also incorporated into the MBBS Curriculum of IOM. The CS unit team has been instrumental in the development of the CS curriculum and each member has made significant contribution to the teaching/learning modules. The CS unit members also function as trainers and have been conducting classes for the undergraduate students based on the curriculum since the past 2 years. It is the vision of this CS unit to introduce teaching of communication skills using simulated patients and to conduct communication skills training for trainers and preparations for this is already underway.

Communication Skills Unit Members:

Assoc. Prof. Mahesh Raj Sigdel	–    Coordinator
Assoc. Prof. Nirju Ranjit	–    Advisor
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gopal Sedai	–    Member
Assoc. Prof. Suniti Rawal	–    Member
Prof. Dr. Jayanman Shrestha	–    Member
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Merina Shrestha	–    Member
Ms. Binjwala Shrestha	–    Member
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Santa Kumar Das	–    Member