The Provider Awareness and Cultural Dexterity Toolkit for Surgeons Trial

Overview

This study is designed to test the impact of a new curriculum, called Provider Awareness Cultural Dexterity Toolkit for Surgeons (PACTS), on surgical residents' cross-cultural knowledge, attitudes, and skills surrounding the care of patients from diverse cultural backgrounds, as well as clinical and patient-reported health outcomes for patients treated by surgical residents undergoing this training.

In order to improve overall health outcomes of minority patients undergoing surgical care, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) collaborated with the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and prioritized the evaluation and the the effect of improvement in culturally dexterous care on surgical outcomes for patients from disparity populations. Poor outcomes in patients are attributed to poor patient-provider communication which may lead to treatment errors, inadequate pain management, less patient-centered care, decreased adherence to treatment plans, and worse overall clinical outcomes. Additionally, studies have shown that some surgeons have pro-White implicit biases, which are unconscious, automated preferences that individuals may not even be aware of. Historically, formal training in cultural competency is generally integrated into medical education at the undergraduate level but it rarely continues up to the post-graduate level. Few surgical programs have attempted to incorporate cross-cultural communication skills into their educational paradigms, and the approaches to doing so have been inconsistent. In order to add the surgical context in post-graduate level medical education, the investigators adopted a novel approach to cross-cultural communication for surgical trainees, known as cultural dexterity. Cultural dexterity refers to a set of skills and cognitive practices used to maximize communication across multiple dimensions of cultural diversity and deviates from the concept of cultural competency in that it does not demand that learners associate certain practices and behaviors with individuals based on generalizations. Study design: Cross-over, cluster-randomized trial Study Procedures: Curriculum Administration The PACTS curriculum incorporates contemporary learning practices such as the "flipped classroom" model and team-based learning. It consists of e-learning modules and interactive sessions in which residents will apply concepts from the e-learning modules to role-play scenarios constructed in a team-based learning format. Residents will be given detailed, scripted prompts for the role-play sessions followed by structured feedback from peers and facilitators. Outcome Measurement: Residents To evaluate the impact of PACTS on surgical residents' knowledge and attitudes about caring for diverse patients, the investigators will use a pre- and post-test in the form of validated instruments that assess knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported skills on a Likert-type scale. Resident skills will also be objectively assessed through an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) that will be created by the study staff and administered immediately before the intervention and 3 months after the intervention has been completed. The OSCE uses 5-point Likert scale questions to evaluate resident performance across multiple domains. These may be administered virtually or in-person. A Standardized Patient evaluator and a third-party trained impartial observer will evaluate the residents on these domains, and the resulting numerical scores will be averaged. It will serve both a summative and educational purpose in this context. Residents will be required to take a knowledge survey before and after receiving the PACTS curriculum or standard training. Attitudes regarding the importance of facing cross-cultural health care situations will be assessed across multiple domains using a novel survey instrument that is based on a survey that was used in a similar curriculum aimed at medical students, as well as the Values and Belief Systems domain. Patients To evaluate patients' satisfaction and clinical quality related to PACTS training, the investigators will administer surveys to patients treated by residents to determine satisfaction with pain management, communication, trust-building, and comprehension of the informed consent discussion two months before and after the intervention is implemented. Patient satisfaction will be assessed using elements of the validated Patient Satisfactions Survey. We plan to collect clinical surgical outcomes obtained from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database for each patient participant before and after the PACTS curriculum is implemented to measure individual outcomes such as length of stay, postoperative complications, unplanned reoperations, and 30-day morbidity/mortality. A post hoc analysis of clinical outcomes will be performed.