An oral communication curriculum for health science professionals

This paper describes an oral communication curriculum developed at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences for future health care professionals whose first language is not North American English. The paper discuss how the MCPHS curriculum helps these students improve their oral communication proficiency, by assessing the oral skills and threshold proficiency level required to succeed, by measuring the students´ oral skills with a specialized rubric, and by using specific exercises adapted from the health sciences curriculum to help these students achieve the level of oral proficiency required of health care professionals.