All Providers Better Communication Skills Program' (ABCs)

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

All providers Better Communication Skills program' (ABCs) interprofessional provider education: The 'All providers: Better Communication Skills program' (ABCs) is a virtual, person-centred education curriculum for interprofessional health care providers. The ABCs program adopts a blended format (i.e., participants engage in both asynchronous online modules \[five\] and synchronous interactive workshops \[three\]) that has relevance to learners and clinicians at all levels of training and practice. The ABCs program focuses on four essential elements of being a skillful communicator: principles of effective communication, conversation structure, communication skills, and reflective practice. The program consists of virtual modules that provide any clinician with practical tools, tips, and strategies to implement when communicating with seriously ill patients and their families. Terminology is clarified and consistent, the complexities of conversations are simplified and the fundamental approach and structure can be applied to different contexts.

Study summary

High quality, person-centered communication for those living with serious illness benefits patients, families and clinicians. Evidence shows that clinicians rarely engage patients in these, sometimes challenging, discussions. Current education programs to build health care provider competency in serious illness communication are often inconsistent in defined purpose and use of terms. This education also tends to be oriented to treatments, not a person or do not cover the full range of difficult conversations between diagnosis and delivery of end-of-life care.

The ABCs program is an education intervention for health care providers that features a blended format of online modules and interactive virtual workshops, relevant to clinicians at all levels of training and practice. This study will examine the effectiveness of this training (over no training) for impacting provider competency and behavior change in serious illness communication. All participants in this study will receive the full ABCs training, but at different times. The overall intended impact of this program is to improve clinician confidence and satisfaction in having conversations with patients and families about serious illness. The ultimate goal of the ABCs program is to increase access to early palliative care by empowering more providers to initiate this care.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Assessment of Clinical Encounter-Communications Tool (ACE-CT) — All groups: 1) From enrollment to start of Intervention Group ABCs education, 2) Post ABCs education for Intervention Group, at 4 months, 3) Post ABCs education for Control Group, at 8 months. Sample: 6 months post ABCs (14 months).
  The Assessment of Clinical Encounter-Communications Tool (ACE-CT) is completed by external raters of the recorded simulated practices, on a 5-point scale (1 to 5), with higher scores representing a better outcome. The ACE-CT is comprised of 14 items that were developed by the research team through a rigorous mixed methods Bayesian and Delphi process. This scale was derived from an extensive review of existing validated tools to measure quality of communication, including Communication in Oncology Questionnaire \[Com-On\], Family Meeting Communication Assessment Tool \[FaMCAT\] Comskil Coding System (CCS), Serious Illness Conversation Evaluation Exercise \[SIC-Ex\], and Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Form. Item selection was based on the evidence of elements of HCP communication that are of high importance to patients and families and in which there are gaps in current experiences and practices.

Trial sites (2)

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