How far understanding health communication goes between students: a cross sectional study

Background: Communication skills training is recognized as an important component of the curricula for medical schools. In Brazil, according to the National Curricular Guidelines, some public medical schools have changed from an educational model based on training of almost exclusively devoted to technical abilities to a program consisting of knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Thus, given the importance of health communication, we aimed to evaluate the knowledge of first semester medical students about health communication and how basic disciplines may influence it. Methods: Undergraduate students, from a medical school in a Midwest Brazilian Public University, were invited to participate in a questionnaire-based study (n = 144). We developed and validated a questionnaire including fourteen questions regarding some important aspects and situations involving health communication. Results: The importance of health communication for the students become evident with our results. Thus, to support this finding is crucial to inform that our students, in the first semester-training, are inserted into integrative activities with the community, in line with the conduct of care primary attention. Conclusion: Although the experiences lived by students are only observational, we believe that in these "fields of practice" students come to recognize the importance of health communication.