Development and Test of a Communication Skills Training for Transplant Providers - Aims 2 & 3

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to understand the communication occurring between Black and Caucasian patients and their transplant providers during transplant evaluation consultations and assess relationships between these communicative elements and patient and provider factors, patient-reported outcomes and living donor transplant outcomes - living donor referrals, evaluations, and transplants. We will use these findings to inform the development of a communication skills training for transplant providers and test the impact of the training on providers' communication about live donor kidney transplants with Black and Caucasian patients and living donor transplant outcomes.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

* How does the use of the use of instrumental, relational and affective communication by patients and providers during the transplant consultation differ by patient and provider factors, patient-reported outcomes and patient ethnicity?
* What elements of instrumental, relational and affective communication will be predictive of live donor kidney transplant (LDKT) process outcomes (LD inquiries and evaluations, and actual LDKTs)?

Participants will be asked to complete brief surveys before and after the transplant consultation and to give permission for the consultation to be audiorecorded.

This data will be used to develop a training to educate providers on the key communication factors predictive of LDKT process outcomes specific to Black and Caucasian patients, and provide guidance on their application during patient consultations. Researchers will then compare communication and patient-reported and LDKT process outcomes between trained and untrained providers to see whether the training has any effect on living donor inquiries and evaluations, and actual LDKTs.

Conditions

• Kidney Disease, Chronic
• End Stage Renal Disease
• Kidney Replacement

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

EPPComm Provider Training

A curriculum will be developed to educate patients about LDKT and promote the search of potential living donors while supporting patients' values and cultural preferences. The curriculum will consist of two components: didactic education and skills-based communication. The didactic component provides evidence of the impact of patient-provider communication and LDKT process outcomes for Black and Caucasian patients. The skills-based component will build communication confidence leading discussions about LDKT. It provides instructions for the key communication skills needed to confidently assuage patients' concerns about LDKT/live donation and motivates patients to search for living donor. The following will be covered: providing LDKT information/answering questions, highlighting LDKT benefits, refuting live donation misinformation, and encouraging patients to seek living donors.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Temple University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Francis Weng, MD · St. Barnabas Medical Center

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-09-30

Primary Completion

2027-03-31

Completion

2027-05-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations