Abstract
BackgroundCommunication is pivotal to the effective care and treatment of patients in our health care systems. Despite this understanding, clinicians are not sufficiently educated to confidently conduct complex discussions with patients. Communication skills workshops have been shown to be an effective educational format to improve clinician skills. However, despite the increasing interprofessional focus within modern medicine, there have been few studies looking at interprofessional communication workshops.MethodsA qualitative study was conducted to assess how an interprofessional communication skills workshop affected the communication skills of clinicians at a tertiary health service. Pre- and post-workshop surveys were undertaken by participants, followed by focus group interviews eight-weeks post workshop.ResultsClinicians were able to incorporate learnt communication skills into their daily practice. This was associated with an improvement in confidence of clinicians in having complex discussions, in addition to a reduction in the burden of having complex discussions. Participants responded positively to the interdisciplinary format, reporting benefits from the learning experience that translated into daily practice.ConclusionClinicians’ communication skills in conducting complex clinician-patient conversations can be improved by participation in interprofessional communication skills workshops. We identified that the interprofessional aspect of the workshops not only improved interprofessional understanding and relationships, but also developed increased self-awareness during complex discussions, and reduced the sense of burden felt by clinicians.
Highlights
Communication is pivotal to the effective care and treatment of patients in our health care systems
Design We evaluated the experiences of participants using focus group interviews six-weeks after participating in a single interprofessional communication skills workshop
This study provides the basis for further development of interprofessional communication workshops and research into their efficacy
Summary
Communication is pivotal to the effective care and treatment of patients in our health care systems. Despite this understanding, clinicians are not sufficiently educated to confidently conduct complex discussions with patients. Any consultation between a clinician and patient is overlaid with emotions and Stephens et al BMC Medical Education (2021) 21:343 discussions [4,5,6]. It is unsurprising that these conversations are not occurring [7, 8], despite evidence suggesting that patients want to have these discussions with their treating clinicians [9]. Evaluations of different delivery approaches including lectures, computer-based modules, and video/audio review of communication skills [13], suggest that ‘communication skills workshop’ approach is superior to others [14,15,16,17,18]
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