Using Simulation Teaching to Improve the Communication Skills of Clinicians

Abstract

Better communication skills improve the ability of nurses to reduce conflicts with patients. In our medical center, complaints related to poor communication skills during the indwelling of venous catheters number as many as 20-25 cases per month. In our survey, we found that over half (56.25%) of nursing personnel in our medical center self-reported as having "below average" communication skills. Our project team decided to make improvements using interviews and a field survey. After analysis, the team found that reasons for poor communications skills include: the design of educational training courses do not match clinical care needs; the lack of communicative experience while performing venous catheters indwelling; the low confidence of medical personnel; and the lack of communication-skills-related video teaching materials. Establish suitable teaching project modes that improve the communication skills of nursing personnel in the pediatric department during venous catheters indwelling procedures. The improvement methods proposed by the project team consisted of: modifying the pediatric-venous-catheter-indwelling training course, designing teaching courses to enhance communication skills, training seed teachers to teach communication skills, produce videos clips showing scenarios of communication, holding regular case report discussions, and compiling these discussions into an instruction manual. Nursing personnel utilized language or non-language methods to guide pediatric patients and to communicate with their parents during venous catheters indwelling. They understood what patients and their parents were expressing and responded to their questions and concerns logically. The mean score for overall communication skills increased from 27.25 to 35.94 (range: 8 to 40). Communication teaching modes that combine simulation teaching were established in this project. The communication skills of nurse personnel increased significantly during venous catheters indwelling. We expect to promote a better relationship between nurse personnel, pediatric patients, and their parents by sharing this project.