The goal of CONSULT-BP is to train early-stage healthcare providers, including residents and nurse practitioner (NP) students, to mitigate providers' bias, improve communication skills, and enhance providers' ability to develop authentic and meaningful therapeutic alliances with patients. The study setting is an academic safety net hospital that serves a large non-White and poor population. The Investigators hypothesize that patients' outcomes (blood pressure levels) will be lower after the training intervention compared with before training (control) periods.
CONSULT-BP is an intervention to test a theory-based, 'awareness, exposure and skill-building' approach applied in the safety of a simulation-based learning center, to improve providers' interaction skills with minority and poor patients. The study included community-based participatory research input to develop and implement CONSULT-BP in an academic medical center with a large, safety-net health system which serves minority and poor population.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
118
CONSULT-BP is a two sessions training provided to healthcare trainees over a 5-week period. The first session focused on (1) didactic overview of healthcare disparities, social drivers of health, implicit bias and systemic racism and (2) interactive discussions and patient storytelling videos to raise awareness of the bi-directional role of racial and ethnic identity among clinicians and patients. The second session focused on skill building and included (1) bias mitigation strategies based on the RELATE bias mitigation tool and (2) skill practice using 2 standardized patient simulated clinical encounters focusing on hypertension management challenges.
Barre Family Health Center
Barre, Massachusetts, United States
Tri River Family Health Center
Uxbridge, Massachusetts, United States
UMass Memorial Hahnemann Family Health Center
Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
UMass Memorial Medical Center -- Benedict Building
Worcester, Massachusetts, United States
Blood Pressure
Systolic and diastolic blood pressure of patients treated by the participating clinician trainees as reported in the Electronic Medical Record.
Time frame: Control period is 6 months before the intervention and intervention period is up to 6 months after the intervention
RELATE Checklist, a Standardized Patient Rating Scale for Bias-Mitigating and Patient-Centered Communication
The RELATE (Respect, Empathize, Listen, Ask, Talk, Engage) is a 19-item checklist completed by an informant group of "standardized" patients during a simulated standardized patient encounter to evaluate interaction with the participating clinicians. The RELATE checklist contains 4 factors: Respect (4 items), Empathetic Listening (5 items); Ask and Talk (Inquiry, 6 items), and Engagement in Partnership (4 items). The checklist scores are from 0 to 38, with higher scores reflecting better communication from the perspective of the "standardized" patient.
Time frame: During CONSULT-BP session 2 clinician training intervention (simulated standardized patient encounter)
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