All Providers Better Communication Skills Program' (ABCs)

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.

Conditions

• Education of Primary Care Clinicians
• Palliative Care
• Communication

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

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.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Health Canada

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• McMaster University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Hsien Seow, PhD · McMaster University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-09-23

Primary Completion

2026-12-31

Completion

2027-01-30

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations