GSDM Students Attend Workshop to Enhance Communication Skills

This past fall, Professor and Assistant Dean for Faculty Development Dr. Judith Jones was invited by the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science (AACCS) at Stony Brook University to attend a one and a half day workshop hosted by the Boston University Medical Campus (BUMC) where a variety of scientists learned improvisation and how to pitch their projects to various audiences.

The AACCS works to enhance understanding of science by helping train the next generation of scientists and health professionals to communicate more effectively with the public, public officials, the media, and others outside their own discipline. The AACCS believes that scientists from all fields of study have a responsibility to communicate directly and vividly in order to enhance their career prospects, help secure funding, collaborate across disciplines, compete for positions, and serve as effective teachers. Providing proper training for these scientists will help them uphold this responsibility and strengthen their communication skills.

After completing the fall workshop, Dr. Jones felt it was so informative that she and other scientists from BUMC arranged for an AACCS facilitator to provide a similar workshop for Boston University dental students, medical students, family medicine residents, and physician assistant students. Four Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) students are now enrolled in the workshop, which met for the first time on Wednesday, May 27, and will meet two more times before concluding. The four students participating are Vishal Gohel DMD 17; Matthew Jones DMD 18; Alex Nguyen DMD 17; and Heidar Zohrehei AS 17.

At the first meeting, the students learned about improvisation. They learned what it is and how to practice it. The second and third meetings will focus on “distilling the message” by progressively condensing the message within various time-constraints—Three minutes;  one minute; thirty seconds; and fifteen seconds. These lessons will help the students fine-tune their message to their audience and will enhance their overall communication.

According to Dr. Jones, “the benefit of the workshop to dental students is clearer communication of their research to other students and faculty. It also carries over to having better communication with patients.”