Patient-Clinician Communication Skill Training: A Mobile Education Initiative

Medical College of Wisconsin37 enrolled

Overview

This study is a pilot test of The Art of Medicine Series, a smartphone-based educational tool to improve clinician-patient communication. Investigators will enroll clinicians (residents, fellows, attending physicians) and family caregivers (most often parents) from the Children's Wisconsin neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Participants will then receive a series of links to short, animated videos sent to their phone by text message. Each video teaches best-practice communication techniques such as how patients can prompt teach back and how clinicians can avoid biased phrasing in delivering news. Over the 4-week intervention (the length of resident's rotation), clinicians will receive 15 videos and patients will receive 8 videos. Communication skills of clinicians and patients will be assessed pre and post intervention using validated measures and participants' engagement with the videos will be tracked with software in the website.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Communication Patient Engagement

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: Inclusion criteria - clinician: * A resident, fellow, or attending physician * On Team A rotation in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Children's Wisconsin. Inclusion criteria - patient: * A parent, grandparent, or other identified caregiver of a child on Team A of the NICU at Children's Wisconsin * Expected to stay in the NICU for a further 3 weeks * Have not previously participated in the study * Are 18 years of age or older * Able to speak and understand English. Exclusion Criteria: \-

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Clinician communication skills

Clinician communication skills are primarily measured using the validated Gap Kalamazoo Communication Skills Self-Assessment.

Time frame: Assessed at 4 weeks

Patient communication skills

Patient (family caregiver) communication skills are primarily measured using the • Perceived Self-Efficacy in Patient-Physician Interactions (PEPPI).

Time frame: Assessed at 4 weeks

Secondary Outcomes

Participant engagement with videos

Participant (both clinician and patient) engagement with videos is measured through tracking software on The Art of Medicine Series website.

Time frame: Collected at 4 weeks