Geritalk: Using Deliberate Skills Practice in Communication Skills Training (302)

Abstract

1.Compare and contrast the traditional method of medical education with the concept of deliberate practice, as applied to communication skills.2.Describe Geritalk, a model communication skills training program for palliative medicine and geriatrics fellows.3.Explore ways to translate deliberate practice to participants’ specific learners and teaching environment. The care of the seriously ill is frequently complicated by communication challenges. Delivering bad news, coping with clinical uncertainty, supporting a patient through periods of functional or cognitive decline, and establishing appropriate goals of care are a few of the challenges that palliative medicine clinicians confront daily. Despite the frequency of these difficult conversations and the fact that the ACGME has identified communication as a core clinical skill, fellows in palliative medicine receive little focused communication training. Most fellowship programs do not have a formal curriculum for teaching communication skills. Geritalk is a 2-day communication skills workshop for palliative medicine and geriatrics fellows that specifically addresses their common communication challenges, including giving bad news and discussing transitions to palliative care. Particular focus is placed on the intricacies of discussing these topics with surrogate decision makers and establishing specific goals of care for patients with profound functional and cognitive impairment. Developed by Drs. Neill and Kelley, the program relies heavily on skills practice sessions with simulated patients, complemented by brief didactic sessions and reflective discussions. The session will make the case for formal communication workshops as a method for teaching communication skills. Complex in many ways, communication is not something that can simply be learned by the “see one, do one, teach one” strategy. It requires many hours of practice. Geritalk fosters, in fellows, an importance on deliberate practice-practice which includes setting personal goals, observed communication encounters, reflection on one's own work, and feedback by a skilled coach. Participants will have an opportunity to see how the model of deliberate practice is applied to communication skills teaching in palliative care through a demonstration of a Geritalk skills practice session and then reflect on how they might apply this method of teaching in their home environment.