In medical education, professionalism and interpersonal communication skills are considered to be equally important to the mastery of medical fund of knowledge. 1,2 The American Association of Medical Colleges states that "medical schools should articulate and defend the importance of professional values," and suggests tools for developing and assessing these skills, such as 360-degree evaluations, simulations, clinical vignettes, retreats, and focus groups. 1 The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education includes interpersonal communication and professionalism as core competencies; trainees must achieve these before practicing independently. 2 This emphasis on professionalism and communication competencies may be related to data showing a link between excellence in communication skills and improved medical outcomes. Such outcomes include increased patient satisfaction and trust, increased patient adherence with treatments, increased likelihood patients will stay with a physician, fewer patient complaints, and reductions in the frequency of litigation. 3 Furthermore, unprofessional behavior is associated with reduced productivity among colleagues, high physician turnover, and propensity for physician burnout. 4 Despite their importance, the best methods for teaching professionalism and communication skills remain unclear. We sought to (1) assess the self-reported comfort level of neurology residents with professionalism and communication tasks; (2) identify how neurology residents feel that they learn best; (3) explore faculty's perception of teaching residents about professionalism and communication; and (4) pilot a novel educational initiative to improve professionalism and communication skills for our residents. Methods Anonymous electronic surveys were distributed to neurology residents and faculty in the Department of Neurology at our institution in October 2017. Surveys were designed to assess perceptions regarding resident education on interpersonal communication and professionalism tasks, including specific scenarios such as breaking bad news, delivering a sensitive diagnosis, discussing prognosis, leading a goals-of-care discussion, disclosing a medical error, reviewing risks and benefits of IV tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), and communicating with members of the care team (see supplemental data, links.lww.com/WNL/B39). After review of the survey results, a committee of faculty members and residents discussed how to improve resident education about communication and professionalism. Due to the study's design, review by the institutional review board was waived. Based on survey results (discussed in the following section), we designed a program of performance-based assessment to augment our existing didactic on professionalism and
