Critical conversations in gynecologic oncology: Pilot study of communication skills training for fellows and advanced practice providers.

Authors

null

Carolyn Lefkowits

University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO

Carolyn Lefkowits, Kerri S. Bevis, Elise Carey, Robert Arnold, Lisa Podgurski

Organizations

University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, University of Pittsburgh/UMPC, Pittsburgh, PA

Research Funding

Other Foundation

Background: Good communication is crucial to good patient care. Gynecologic oncology providers often face challenging communication scenarios, including giving serious news and discussing goals of care. Communication skills training (CST) has been shown to improve skill acquisition among providers of multiple specialties, but it has not been described in providers from gynecologic oncology or any surgical oncology specialty. Methods: We conducted a two-day CST workshop, based on the VitalTalk© model, with four faculty members (2 gynecologic oncologists and 2 palliative care physicians) and 10 gynecologic oncology provider participants (5 fellows and 5 advanced practice providers). Using didactics, demonstrations and practice sessions with simulated patients we focused on giving serious news and discussing goals of care. Pre and immediate post-workshop surveys evaluated acceptability of the workshop, perceived impact of preparedness to address challenging communication scenarios and anticipated impact on clinical practice. We compared pre and post-workshop prevalence of score of 4 or 5 out of 5 on a Likert scale for preparedness to handle 14 challenging communication scenarios. Results: Participants reported statistically significant increase in preparedness to handle 13 out of 14 challenging communication scenarios. Among those 13 topics, magnitude of improvement in proportion of participants rating preparedness 4 or 5 out of 5 ranged from 40-100% (all p < 0.05). All participants would recommend the course to others and all strongly agreed that this training should be required of all gynecologic oncology clinicians. Conclusions: Participants felt strongly that the workshop provided high quality education relevant to their practice. As a result of the workshop, participants reported statistically significantly increased preparedness to handle challenging communication scenarios. CST is feasible and has high perceived effectiveness for clinicians in the primarily surgical oncologic specialty of gynecologic oncology.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2016 Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Poster Session B

Track

Biologic Basis of Symptoms and Treatment Toxicities,Psycho-oncology,End-of-Life Care,Survivorship,Management/Prevention of Symptoms and Treatment Toxicities,Psychosocial and Spiritual Care,Communication in Advanced Cancer

Sub Track

Communication skills

Citation

J Clin Oncol 34, 2016 (suppl 26S; abstr 29)

DOI

10.1200/jco.2016.34.26_suppl.29

Abstract #

29

Poster Bd #

C11

Abstract Disclosures