Communication skills for students of vocational schools for medical professions: Design thinking for participatory medicine (DesignCARE)

Secondary and post-secondary education of our future healthcare workers – nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, but also future doctors, pharmacists or dentists, plays a crucial role in preparing them to enter the workforce of fast evolving medicine.

Participatory medicine suggests for patients to take a driving wheel and move toward working in collaboration with their doctors and nurses, connecting into the networks with each other at the society level, and start being responsible for their own health. It is of the great importance to change the current status and develop training for future healthcare workers at the vocational school level, in disciplines that are essential to the successful development of participatory medicine. This objective can be achieved through developing communication skills and diversity competencies for both students and teachers of vocational medical schools through inclusion of learning objectives on knowledge, attitudes and skills needed for implementation of participatory medicine in everyday medical practice.

DesignCARE project addresses the gap identified in the vocational schools in the field of participatory medicine. The main objective is to design, pilot, implement and evaluate DesignCARE curriculum and course for the students in secondary and post-secondary medical vocational schools that will help them to engage in participatory medicine through promotion of the development of communication skills and diversity competence, in line with ethical principles.

DesignCARE online course will be created in such a way that can easily be transferred to other vocational school programs and medical programs at higher, undergraduate and graduate level.

More details can be found on the DesignCARE project's web page: https://mefst.unist.hr/znanost/erasmus-projekti-11479/designcare/11958