Burnett School of Medicine
Physician Communication
Longitudinal Integrated Curriculum
Relationship-Centered Communication
Relationship-Centered Communication
Communication is the most common medical procedure! As such, at the Burnett School of Medicine, we believe it is essential to provide our students with communication skills training from very start of their medical education. In partnership with the Academy of Communication in Healthcare we train our students in an evidence‐based communication framework that enriches equity and relationships between clinicians, patients, and health professionals.
Innovations
Innovations
The Burnett School of Medicine Physician Communication Team has partnered with Heroes Active Bystandership© to create the Heroes for Healthcare – Medical Student program, to train Burnett School of Medicine students in active bystandership and equip them with the tools to confidently and effectively intervene on their own behalf and on behalf of others, enhancing their personal and professional development, improving wellness and preventing harm.
Medical Spanish
Medical Spanish
Under the direction of Dr. Karla O’Donald, the Physician Communication Medical Spanish program provides Burnett School of Medicine students with a strong foundational toolkit for more effective and empathetic communication with Spanish-speaking patients, supporting quality care in real-world healthcare environments. Embedded in the Phase I curriculum, the program is intentionally designed to engage all proficiency levels—from beginners to advanced speakers. Through adaptable learning pathways aligned with language background and skill level, targeted vocabulary, structured dialogue(s), and scenario-based practice, students obtain foundational communication skills for medical interactions with Spanish-speaking patients. With an emphasis on intercultural understanding across the Spanish-speaking world, the program enhances students’ readiness to engage with diverse patient populations thoughtfully and respectfully.
Professional Communication
Professional Communication
The fully integrated longitudinal communication curriculum spans courses in all three phases of our students’ education, beginning in Introduction to Medicine and culminating in Transition to Residency. Content is sequenced in an intentional, developmentally relevant manner, beginning with an emphasis on self-awareness/insight development and direct patient contact. As the curriculum progresses, content expands to emphasize communication within and across the healthcare team; with patients and their families; the community; media; industry and beyond.
Humanities & Communication
Speaker Series & Special Events
Speaker Series & Special Events
The Physician Communication Team hosts a variety of co-curricular programming aimed at educating not only our medical students, but the Fort Worth community as whole. From our Burnett School of Medicine Physician Communication & Medical Humanities Speaker Series, to our partnerships with multiple programs across the TCU College of Fine Arts, we showcase the unique intersection of humanities and medicine.
Previous events include; Shared Sorrows: The Universality of Grief and the Call to be a Compassionate Community, Stethoscope Stage, The Mindful Twenty-Something.
Check back here for upcoming events!
HuMed Journal
HuMed Journal
HuMed is an online journal specializing in Medical Humanities and other forms of engagement with literature, critical theory, the arts, and history. We feature creative non-fiction, poetry, short stories, original artwork, and critical essays that address the interdisciplinary side of medicine and humanistic care.
At this time, submissions are open to anyone at the TCU School of Medicine: students, faculty, and staff. Although not all pieces may be accepted in their original form, we are committed to offering support for revision until they are publication-ready.
This journal will be juried by the Physician Communication Team. Prose pieces and essays should be between 500-2000 words. All citations should be in Chicago Style. Audio recordings or video recordings of performances should be properly edited for clarity, flow, and lower-order issues like background noise, etc.
Meet The Team
Meet The Team
Erin Nelson, Psy.D.
Erin Nelson, Psy.D., joined the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University in 2017 as an Associate Professor of Medical Education and was the inaugural Director of our longitudinal Preparation for Practice Course. Since 2017, Dr. Nelson has also led, and continues to lead, our Psychological and Behavioral Science curriculum.
Dr. Nelson and the Physician Communication Team are committed to furthering our collective mission – training the next generation of Empathetic Scholars®. The team works closely with leadership, faculty, staff, and students across the school of medicine and TCU main campus to develop and deploy innovative communication content for our students. Formal Physician Communication curriculum is integrated across school of medicine courses and embedded in all three phases of the program. The unit also offers a robust range of co-curricular opportunities for students, faculty, staff and the community.
James Cox, M.D.
James Cox, M.D. is from San Diego, California. He attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York where he received his bachelor’s degree in Spanish. He then attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where he received his Doctorate in Medicine. He then completed his Internal Medicine residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, and stayed an additional year as Chief Resident. He continued his training with a fellowship in Gastroenterology at UCLA. Following his training, he then worked as a private-practice gastroenterologist in the Dallas area for 22 years until 2017. He remains board-certified and is active as a consultant in litigation and business affairs.
Dr. Cox joined the faculty at the Burnett School of Medicine in 2019 and is currently the co-director of the Gastrointestinal/Nutrition module in the Mechanisms of Health and Disease curriculum. Additionally, he serves as both the Director of Clinical Skills Development and Physician Communication. He has also been very involved in the medical school admissions program, as well as advising in student interest groups such as Gastroenterology, The Business of Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine, and Medical Spanish.
Heather Hale Nguyen, M.S.
Heather Hale Nguyen, M.S., joined the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University as the Assistant Director of Admissions in 2018, and later served as the Director of Admissions, helping welcome the first four inaugural classes of the School of Medicine.
In 2023, Heather transitioned to the Physician Communication Team to serve as the Director of Humanities & Communications. In her current role, Heather creates and collaborates with the medical school community, TCU community and multiple partners across Fort Worth to deliver insightful and engaging programming at the intersection of medicine and humanities.
Heather is a native Texan and received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Tarleton State University in Stephenville. In her spare time, she enjoys supporting local non-profits, traveling and spending time exploring the community with her husband and two young children.
Amit Singh, M.D.
Amit Singh, M.D. is a board-certified pediatric hospitalist at Cook Children’s Medical Center (CCMC), and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University both in Fort Worth, Texas. He completed his residency at the former Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland (now UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland) and went on to complete a Pediatric Hospital Medicine fellowship at Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego/University of California San Diego. He then worked for 10 years as a pediatric hospitalist at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford where his main non-clinical interests surrounded clinical informatics, patient experience, and relationship-centered communication before returning to the DFW metroplex.
Currently Dr. Singh is the Physician Director for patient experience at Cook Children’s Medical Center and serves as the Director of Physician Communication at the TCU School of Medicine. He has completed training in relationship-centered care through the Academy of Communication in Healthcare and is certified as a facilitator. As a pediatric hospitalist he has a great passion for how patients and families experience their hospitalization and how physicians can impact and improve that experience. Not having any medical professionals in his family, he is also very passionate about how we can teach the next generations of medical professionals how to communicate effectively and compassionately with patients and families during some of the most stressful times of their lives.
In his spare time he loves to spend time with his wife and three young boys traveling, eating, and goofing off.
Karla O’Donald, Ph.D.
TCU Department of Spanish and Hispanic Studies & Director, Medical Spanish
k.odonald@tcu.edu View BioKarla O’Donald, Ph.D.
Karla O’Donald Ph.D. has been teaching Spanish for the professions for about 15 years of her 27-year teaching career. Through fostering a deep appreciation for language diversity, promoting effective communication, and cultivating global citizenship, her mission is to inspire a lifelong love for language learning and equip students with the tools to become empathetic, open-minded, and effective communicators in our global community.
Objectives for the Medical Spanish Program:
- Develop Competency in Conversational Spanish: Enhance students’ conversational skills in Spanish, tailored to their current proficiency levels, ranging from novice to advanced speakers.
- Learn Culturally Appropriate Communication: Equip students with culturally appropriate conversational skills, enabling effective and respectful interactions with Spanish-speaking patients, their families, and other healthcare providers.
- Prepare for Culturally Competent Care: Prepare students to provide informed, culturally competent care to Spanish-speaking patients, addressing language barriers and fostering inclusivity in healthcare delivery.
- Promote Lifelong Learning and Professional Development: Establish a foundation for continuous Spanish language learning that supports professional growth and service, particularly in healthcare settings involving Spanish-speaking populations.
- Create and Utilize Online Resources: Develop an accessible online repository of relevant medical Spanish curriculum and resources to support ongoing learning and practical application.
