Rooted In Partnership: Cultivating the Clinical Communication Curriculum Through Student Collaboration – A medical student perspective from the UKCCC Conference 2025

Medical Student Perspective
5 August 2025

Healthcare Mini Robot with medical instruments.

A standout theme at the UKCCC 2025 clinical communication conference was the rise of AI and digital tools in the clinical communication undergraduate medical education curriculum. While these innovations showed promise, what struck me most was how few sessions addressed how we evaluate their effectiveness or whether students feel genuinely equipped for real world clinical encounters.

Many demonstrations focused on student satisfaction or confidence ratings. While useful, these don’t always reflect long term competence. What’s missing is a framework that tracks students’ performance on Clinical Competency Assessment (CCAs) and how they perform in realistic, complex situations. To ensure AI based tools support learning, rather than just impress, we need student collaboration in shaping how these tools are integrated and evaluated.

Including students in conversations could help bridge the divide between what we’re taught and what we experience on placement.

A separate insight came from a session by Yvonne Batson-Wright and Anna Collini on ‘Remote Clinical Communication’. It highlighted how much of today’s training still centres on traditional, in person formats, even though remote consultations have become a routine part of care. This gap isn’t about AI specifically, but about ensuring the clinical communication curriculum reflects current realities. Including students in these conversations could help bridge the divide between what we’re taught and what we experience on placement.

Recommendations:

1. Set up a Student Digital Panel

Involve a diverse group of students in testing, reviewing and shaping any new AI or digital learning tools before they’re introduced more widely. Their insights can highlight usability issues, clinical realism and potential risks early on.

2. Align digital tools with actual learning outcomes

Ensure AI based tools are linked to students’ clinical communication skills assessments such as CCA’s, rather than relying on confidence scores or satisfaction surveys alone. This makes evaluation more meaningful to future practice.

3. Introduce teaching about digital consultations early

Add specific teaching on remote communication skills, including telephone, video and written consultation formats from Year 1. This reflects how care is currently delivered and prepares students more realistically for placements and real life.

4. Encourage reflective practice on tech use

City St George’s stood out positively at the conference with the use of reflective practice in the curriculum. In future, after using digital or AI tools in teaching, students should be prompted to reflect briefly: How did it shape their thinking? What were the limitations? This will build digital literacy and professional judgement.

As we consider how we will incorporate AI and digital tools in clinical communication education, we must ensure these tools are not just innovative but impactful. The next step could be to align these tools with real-world competencies and involve students as co-creators in the process. If we can embed digital consultation skills early, evaluate tools meaningfully, and foster reflective practice, we can build a curriculum that is both future-facing and grounded in clinical reality. Partnership with students isn’t just beneficial—it’s essential.

Written by: