50. PARENT COACHES: A NOVEL APPROACH TO TRAINEE FEEDBACK

Abstract

Conducting direct observation and providing immediate feedback can be a valuable method for training learners as effective participants in patient- and family centered rounds (PFCR). These are traditionally done by faculty and are time consuming to do consistently for a large number of trainees. A new innovative role found on some hospital interprofessional teams is the parent advisor. This role is filled by a parent of a child with complex medical needs who is an experienced user of the hospital system. We speculated a novel use of parent advisors to serve as coaches for trainees and developed a program to observe and provide feedback on PFCR performance. A parent coach was identified and trained by members of our study team in PFCR observation, family communication, and provision of feedback to medical learners. Structured tools used included the PEA-21 checklist (a validated tool for observing presenters on PFCR), a structured form for interviewing families of patients, and an 8 item PFCR rounds checklist. The parent coach rounded with two inpatient teams weekly and met 1-on-1 with trainees to give feedback. Trainees also completed a survey about the coaching experience which included 9 items on a 5-point Likert scale and 4 items on a 3-point Likert scale related to learner impressions on receiving feedback from the parent coach. Data analysis includes descriptive statistics of survey responses. A total of 229 presentations given by 128 unique learners were observed during 85 rounding sessions from November 2017 to December 2018. 162 in-person feedback sessions occurred. 139 surveys were completed. 88% of trainees agreed (answered agree or strongly agree) sessions were important to their clinical success and 85% agreed there were actionable steps they would take as a result of receiving feedback. 87% of trainees agreed parent coaching sessions were valuable uses of their time and 82% recommended parent coaching for other trainees. We established the feasibility of trained parent coaching program and reached 128 students and residents during this period. In addition the learners found the feedback sessions valuable for their training.