Increasing Physician Assistant Students' Team Communication Skills and Confidence Throughout Clinical Training.

Abstract

An intervention was designed to increase physician assistant students' team communication skills using the Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation (SBAR) tool. A variety of learning activities were implemented longitudinally over 9 months of clinical education. Instructional activities included an interactive lecture, deliberate practice of SBAR at clinical training sites, self-assessment, and small group discussion. Evaluation involved survey of students' perceived learning outcomes and direct observation of students' proficiency using SBAR during a simulated patient encounter. At the beginning of their clinical training, many students (75%) did not have a structured tool for communicating on health care teams. The SBAR tool was readily understood by students following a lecture (89%) and increased their confidence in communicating with preceptors (62%-83%) and nonpreceptors (62%-79%). A majority of students proficiently demonstrated the SBAR components (82%-86%) at the conclusion of the program. This approach can be adopted and adapted by other programs aiming to teach and evaluate SBAR and other team skills to better prepare new health professionals to effectively communicate on health care teams.