Good communication is a clinical skill. It shapes whether patients understand their diagnosis, follow their treatment, and trust the people caring for them. Poor communication is behind many complaints, errors and missed information, and it’s often the first thing patients remember about their care.
Yet communication is usually taught in a lecture and tested in a handful of exams, while clinical skills get hours of practice. Our data shows what that leaves out. In more than 2,400 clinical communication practice sessions on VirtualSpeech in 2026, mostly by nursing, medical and allied-health students, people were best at building rapport and showing empathy. They were weakest at the structure of a consultation: opening it clearly, and summarizing, closing and agreeing a plan.
This guide covers the communication skills healthcare professionals need, with example phrases, what the practice data shows, proven frameworks such as SPIKES, and how to teach communication so it sticks.
Why communication in healthcare matters
- Better outcomes. Patients who understand their condition and treatment are more likely to follow it.
- Safety. Clear handovers and confirming understanding reduce errors and missed information.
- Trust and satisfaction. Patients judge care partly on how they were spoken to.
- Fewer complaints. Many complaints come down to how something was communicated, not the care itself.
- Staff wellbeing. Clinicians who feel confident in difficult conversations find them less draining.
7 communication skills every healthcare professional needs
| Skill | What it means | Example phrase |
|---|---|---|
| Opening and framing | Introduce yourself, explain the purpose and check what the patient wants to cover | “I’m Sam, one of the nurses. I’d like to talk about your discharge plan today. Is there anything you want to make sure we cover?” |
| Active listening | Give full attention, don’t interrupt, and show you’ve heard | “Go on, tell me more about when the pain started.” |
| Open and clarifying questions | Let patients tell their story, then check the details | “How has this been affecting you day to day?” · “When you say dizzy, do you mean the room spins?” |
| Empathy | Recognize the emotion as well as the facts | “That sounds really frightening.” |
| Explaining clearly | Plain language, small chunks, no jargon | “Your heart isn’t pumping as strongly as it should, so fluid builds up in your legs.” |
| Checking understanding (teach-back) | Ask the patient to explain it back in their own words | “Just so I know I explained it well, can you tell me how you’ll take this at home?” |
| Summarizing, closing and planning | Recap, agree next steps, and check for questions | “So we’ve agreed you’ll start the new tablets tomorrow and we’ll check your blood pressure next week. What questions do you have?” |
Non-verbal communication matters just as much: sit at eye level, face the patient rather than the screen, and allow silences when someone is taking in difficult news.
What 2,400 clinical practice conversations show
Healthcare students build rapport well but struggle with the structure of a consultation. Across 2,435 clinical communication roleplays at 70 universities, hospitals and training providers in 2026, building rapport and empathy scored highest (6.0 out of 10). Opening and structuring the conversation (4.6) and summarizing, closing and agreeing a plan (4.5) scored lowest, with about half of sessions below 5 on each.
In practice, students warm to the patient and gather information well, then the conversation drifts. They don’t set out what the consultation will cover, and they end without summarizing, confirming understanding or agreeing the next steps.
Delivering bad news shows the same pattern. In our “Delivering Difficult News” scenario, used at 54 organizations, following a clear structure such as SPIKES scored lowest (4.2 out of 10), while tone and professionalism scored highest (5.8).
Two more findings stand out:
- This is a global skill gap. 85% of these sessions were in a language other than English, mostly Spanish, from nursing, medicine, physiotherapy and psychology programs.
- It’s mostly students practicing. 81% of sessions came from universities and colleges, typically before clinical placements and exams.
Frameworks that help
Because structure is the weakest area, frameworks make a big difference. Three of the most widely taught:
SPIKES for breaking bad news
- Setting: a private space, sitting down, with time and without interruptions.
- Perception: ask what the patient already knows or suspects.
- Invitation: ask how much they want to know.
- Knowledge: give the information clearly, in small chunks, without jargon. Warn them first: “I’m afraid the results aren’t what we hoped.”
- Emotions and empathy: respond to their reaction before moving on.
- Strategy and summary: agree next steps and check understanding.
Teach-back
After explaining something, ask the patient to explain it back in their own words. It checks understanding without making the patient feel tested, and it’s the quickest fix for the “closing” gap in our data.
A simple consultation structure
- Open: introduce yourself, explain the purpose, agree an agenda.
- Gather: open questions first, then focused ones.
- Explain: in plain language, checking understanding as you go.
- Plan: agree next steps together.
- Close: summarize, ask for questions, and confirm what happens next.
Well-known consultation models such as Calgary-Cambridge follow a similar structure.
How to teach and train healthcare communication
- Make practice as routine as clinical skills practice. Communication improves through repetition with feedback, not lectures. Build short practice sessions into every module, not just one communication course.
- Use realistic, high-stakes scenarios: breaking bad news, anxious relatives, a patient who disagrees with the plan, a handover under time pressure.
- Teach structure explicitly. Our data shows students don’t naturally open and close consultations well. Give them a framework, then practice it.
- Practice before placements and exams, when it matters most to students.
- Practice in the language of care. Students who will treat patients in Spanish, Arabic or Swedish need to practice in that language.
- Scale practice beyond simulated patients. Simulated-patient sessions are valuable but expensive and limited. AI roleplays let every student practice as often as they need, and keep actor sessions for assessment.
- Measure communication skills at the start and end of a course, by skill rather than one overall grade.
Frequently asked questions
Why is communication important in healthcare?
It affects whether patients understand and follow their treatment, how safe their care is, how much they trust their clinicians, and how many complaints arise.
What are the most important communication skills in healthcare?
Opening and framing the conversation, active listening, open and clarifying questions, empathy, explaining clearly, checking understanding, and summarizing and agreeing a plan.
What is the SPIKES protocol?
A six-step framework for breaking bad news: Setting, Perception, Invitation, Knowledge, Emotions and empathy, and Strategy and summary.
What do healthcare students find hardest about communication?
Structure. In our 2026 data from 2,435 clinical practice conversations, opening and structuring the conversation (4.6 out of 10) and summarizing, closing and agreeing a plan (4.5) scored lowest, while rapport and empathy scored highest (6.0).
How can healthcare communication skills be improved?
Regular practice in realistic scenarios with feedback, explicit teaching of frameworks such as SPIKES and teach-back, and measuring skills over time.
How we did this analysis
We analyzed 2,435 completed AI roleplays on clinical communication scenarios from January 1 to October 13, 2026, at 70 universities, hospitals and training providers. Scenarios included patient interviews, delivering difficult news, emergency nursing cases, mental health assessments and health education. We grouped scenario-specific skills, in several languages, into five broader skills. We excluded anonymous free-trial sessions, internal and test accounts, and sessions with no valid score. Scores come from AI, not human assessors. All data was anonymized and aggregated.
Related reading:
