¿Cómo se aprenden y se enseñan habilidades de comunicación empática en cuidados paliativos en un programa de geriatría?

Abstract

Objective: To describe how the teaching-learning process of empathic communication skills in palliative care is carried out in residents of the geriatrics program of a university in the city of Bogota, Colombia. Materials and methods: Qualitative research study, of interpretative type, based on a narrative design of topics with narrative interviews with students and teachers of the geriatrics postgraduate program. A three-dimensional observation of the material obtained in the interviews was achieved through the process of constellation of stories and previous consensus among the authors. Results: Three life stories are narrated: empathic communication in geriatrics, learning empathic communication in end-of-life situations and teaching empathic communication. These stories tell of the difficulties and accomplishments of learning and teaching empathic communication in geriatrics." Now that I reflect on it, I realize that it is not really written how to adequately teach this type of communication", "I consider that the most important thing is to set an example, especially in difficult situations, which allows the resident to observe how one communicates and I believe that this is also how one learns", "I was taken in by other older residents, they accompanied me on shifts and this is how I had the first experiences of giving bad news to older people in end-of-life situations". Conclusion: Empathic communication at the end of life is taught and learned through practice and example. This approach was organized in our case through a community of practice, which, although not formalized in the curriculum, was identified as the main way in which residents learned to communicate bad news. Our results suggest that the teaching-learning process of communication in these contexts is fundamentally a situated process mediated by sociocultural theories. These findings are relevant because they would support the development of an aligned pedagogical project that enhances the learning of these competencies in students.