How do Swiss medical schools prepare their students to become good communicators in their future professional careers: a questionnaire and interview study involving medical graduates, teachers and curriculum coordinators.

Although the Swiss medical schools all offered a partly longitudinal communication skills training, with appropriate teaching methods, this study indicates that the communication skills actually taught do not fully match the SCLO or international recommendations. There was less training for complex communication skills training during the clinical years, and ensuring quality and coherence in the teaching remained a challenge.