An Interprofessional Workshop for Students to Improve Communication and Collaboration Skills in End-of-life Care

Abstract

Interprofessional care is critical for patients at the end of life (EOL), but programs to teach communication skills to medical and nursing students are rare. The aims of this study were to determine whether an interprofessional workshop improves (1) student attitudes toward teamwork and (2) self-efficacy for communicating in difficult situations. Nursing and medical students attended a workshop with collaborative role play of an EOL conversation. Before the workshop, students showed different attitudes toward teamwork and collaboration and varying levels of confidence about communication skills. After the workshop, both groups reported more positive attitudes toward teamwork but a mixed picture of confidence in communication. Experiential interprofessional education workshops enhance perceptions about the benefits of teamwork, but further teaching and evaluation methods are needed to maximize the effectiveness.

Interprofessional Communication (IPC) for Medical Students: A Scoping Review

“…Focused group discussions (90,111,112) and semi-structured interviews were also carried out by faculty members to grade students on their ability to demonstrate their knowledge (16,18,74,(113)(114)(115)(116). Only the Mayo High Performance Teamwork Scale 26 (25,68,70,73,95,125), family meetings (19), roleplay (20,85); paediatric clinical simulations (99); Objective Structured Clinical Exam simulations (126) and laboratory sessions (87). Non-clinical scenarios incorporated the handling of di cult family con icts (116) and sensitive cultural issues (116).…”

“…IPC training at this level Miller's Pyramid (13,15,63,64) were part of formal programs. This includes the provision videos, lectures and brie ngs (65)(66)(67)(68)(69)(70)(71), online courses, didactic lectures and workshops (19,25,26,65,(72)(73)(74)(75), seminars and conferences (17,69,76,77) and even a 'Healthcare Interprofessional Education Day' where there opportunities to clarify interprofessional roles and markers of pro ciency (24). IPC training at this level also took place as part of observations of interactions between the healthcare team, role modelled in multidisciplinary settings (89)(90)(91)(92)(93).…”

Interprofessional Communication (IPC) for Medical Students: A Scoping Review

“…Students reported self-perceived improvement in IPC and the increased ability to adapt different communication styles in future practices (2,15,51,52,55,59,65,69,75,77,78,80,81,83,86,101,106,115,116).…”

“…Outcomes Outcomes were positive, with students reporting an increase in understanding of IPC (2, 52, 60, 76-79, 92-94, 99, 101, 102).Stage 2: Knows HowTo achieve the "Knows How" level of competence, students have to be cognizant of how to apply the concepts learnt in a variety of conditions including clinical and non-clinical scenarios. Clinical scenarios include cardiac resuscitations(56,64,75,89), handoff(103), mock pages(104,105), interactions with simulated patients(52,53,63,100,103) and manikins(58,79,81,83,(106)(107)(108)(109), communication with a senior clinician(101), simulated ward rounds(15,54,55,84,110,111), simulated family meetings(59), roleplay(72,112), paediatric clinical simulation(82), Objective…”

Pediatric Oncology Nurses’ Experiences With Prognosis-Related Communication

“…Fortunately, the need for collaborative, interprofessional education surrounding the topic of difficult communication has been recognized in academia, and reports of combined training activities are being reported. Through a combination of a variety of different modalities including lectures, small group discussions, instructional videos, role play, and simulation, medical and nursing students together are being trained in breaking bad news (Erickson, Blackhall, Brashers, & Varhegyi, 2015;Gorniewicz et al, 2016;Schildmann, Harlein, Burchardi, Schlogl, & Vollmann, 2006). Interprofessional education promotes purposeful interactions and discussions between physicians and nurses and can allow for role play or simulation, providing both with the opportunity to participate in different aspects of the process and better understand the contributions of the other (Hendricks-Ferguson et al, 2015;McCaffrey et al, 2010;Messmer, 2008;Saylor, Vernoony, Selekman, & Cowperthwait, 2016).…”