SWOT ANALYSES APPLIED TO ENGLISH ORAL COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS

Abstract

Effective communication is not a “soft skill”, but it is a core competency in the medical field. Many studies on this topic have concluded that patients' safety and satisfaction are closely related to the communication skills of medical professionals. It is essential that future practitioners continually develop their communication and presentation abilities in a formal framework. And, indeed, communication skills training programs are increasingly making their way into the medical curriculum of universities worldwide. Communication tasks are widely used in the English language course for medical students at UMFST Târgu Mureș and are also the most relevant forms of evaluation. Improving and streamlining public speaking skills tasks are a constant concern for educators. This paper aims to compare three oral communication tasks in English for medical students carried out over several years (2018-2026), based on individual SWOT analyses that identified the specific features of each type of activity. Then an integrative SWOT analysis, based on the common elements, emphasizes the role of these activities in developing oral communication skills. This approach allows the elaboration of strategies to improve each activity, as well as a general assessment of the benefits and challenges that need to be addressed in order to optimize results and performance in the field of communication in healthcare and in medical academic contexts.