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Measuring the Impact of an Interactive Communication Skills Curriculum on Internal Medicine Residents

NCT05057780 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 411

Last updated 2023-10-02

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This study seeks to assess whether a novel method of teaching communication skills is effective in improving the communication skills of internal medicine residents. Effective communication is widely accepted as an essential skill in both clinical practice and post-graduate training. While the body of research on effective communication is maturing, training that incorporates this new data lags behind. Methodological difficulties inherent to the study of communication training programs further complicates the effort to create effective, evidence-based training programs for the next generation of practitioners. Cleveland Clinic has taught its internally developed relationship-centered communication model, the R.E.D.E. Model, to over 7000 providers in less than 5 years. While teaching this course, common communication themes emerged as areas where providers often "get stuck". This proposal details a cluster randomized educational study of a novel communication training curriculum that addresses 3 of the common communication themes that emerged and how those themes occur in multiple, different communication challenges. The curriculum will be delivered to 2nd and 3rd year internal medicine residents over three, 1-hr long training sessions. The investigators' primary aim is to test whether residents trained to identify and communicate through these themes will receive better scores on communication from patients seen in their general internal medicine clinic. The investigators will also assess the effect of this training on patient compliance and on management of common chronic diseases such as hypertension, depression, and diabetes. Lastly, the investigators will measure the effect of the training course on resident self-perceived burnout and empathy.

Conditions

  • Resident Communication Skills Rated by Patients

Interventions

OTHER

Communication Skills Curriculum

Our novel intervention adapted curricula around effective skills used to navigate common communication challenges in clinical practice. These skills were selected after determining patterns from multiple communication sessions delivered to over 6,000 healthcare providers. Our main goal was to enhance communication with patients by helping residents gain confidence and competence using these under-utilized communication skills, regardless of the communication challenge. Over the course of three, 1-hour long sessions on communication in the 2017-2018 academic year, internal medicine residents learned three of these highly effective and often under-utilized skills; reflective listening, responding to emotion and reframing, respectively.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • The Cleveland Clinic

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Susannah Rose, PhD · The Cleveland Clinic

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2017-11-20
Primary Completion
2018-10-09
Completion
2019-05-01

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05057780 on ClinicalTrials.gov