Geriatric Communication Skills Training Program for Oncology Clinicians

Geriatric Communication Skills Training Program for Oncology Clinicians to Improve Management of Care for Geriatrics Cancer Patients

The purpose of this study is to learn more about the effects of a training program designed to help doctors communicate better with older patients and their caregivers.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Lymphoma; Bone Marrow Transplant; GI Cancer; GU Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Self-Efficacy Assessment; Behavioral: UCLA Geriatrics Attitudes Scale; Behavioral: Course Evaluations; Behavioral: The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) questionnaire; Behavioral: Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems Program (CAHPS); Behavioral: Patient activation measure (PAM) scale

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 88
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • New York, New York, United States, 10065
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Clinician Eligibility

• MSK medical oncology Health Care Professionals (HCP) - specifically identified as Attendings, fellows, or Advance Practice Professional (APP) - either a Nurse Practitioner (NP) or Physician Assistant (PA) from GI, GU Oncology, Lymphoma, Bone Marrow Transplant or Geriatrics Service (five services with a large number of geriatric patients)
• Willingness to be audio-recorded as per self-report
• Clinician has individual clinic consultations with patients in the target population: 65 years of age and over, English speaking, and patients who have had a new visit within the last 6 months.

Patient Eligibility

• MSK patients 65 years of age and over as per EMR
• English speaking as per EMR
• Being seen by one of the consented HCPs as per the HCP and/or electronic medical record (EMR)
• Willingness to be audio-recorded as per self-report
• Patient had their first visit with the clinician within the last 6 months

Caregiver Eligibility

• English speaking as per EMR
• Accompanying an MSK patient being seen by one of the consented HCPs as per the HCP and/or EMR

Exclusion Criteria:

• N/A

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: GI/GU/Lymphoma Oncologists; Doctors specializing in treating gastrointestinal cancer (cancer of the stomach, pancreas, colon, etc.), genitourinary cancer (cancer of the genitals and urinary tract), and lymphoma (cancer affecting the blood and lymph nodes)	Behavioral: Self-Efficacy Assessment; Health Care Professional's self-efficacy will be assessed by 12 ratings of self-reported confidence from (1) "strongly disagree" to (5) "strongly agree" in module-specific topics both before and after the training.; Behavioral: UCLA Geriatrics Attitudes Scale; The UCLA Geriatrics Attitudes Scale is a 14-item scale developed to assess health care providers' attitudes toward older persons and caring for older patients.; Other Names: Perceived Ageism; Behavioral: Course Evaluations; The evaluation surveys for each of the three modules will contain fifteen statements assessing post-training attitudes regarding the skills learned and application of skills in oncology clinical practice, measured on a 5-point Likert scale.
Active Comparator: Participants with GI/GU/Lymphoma Cancer; Patients of the physicians in group 1	Behavioral: The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) questionnaire; The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) questionnaire is a 10-item self-report scale that measures a patient's satisfaction with how empathic their health care providers (HCP) was within a specific consultation.; Other Names: Perceived Empathy; Behavioral: Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems Program (CAHPS); Patients" perceptions of the quality of their interactions with their clinicians will be rated with 6 items from the Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems Program (CAHPS); Other Names: Satisfaction with communication; Behavioral: Patient activation measure (PAM) scale; The PAM scale contains 22 items that assess patient engagement in their care process.; Other Names: Patient Activation.
Active Comparator: Caregivers of Participants with GI/GU/Lymphoma Cancer; Family members or caregivers of the patients in group 2	Behavioral: The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) questionnaire; The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) questionnaire is a 10-item self-report scale that measures a patient's satisfaction with how empathic their health care providers (HCP) was within a specific consultation.; Other Names: Perceived Empathy; Behavioral: Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems Program (CAHPS); Patients" perceptions of the quality of their interactions with their clinicians will be rated with 6 items from the Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems Program (CAHPS); Other Names: Satisfaction with communication

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Feasibility of Health Care Provider (HCP) training	Measured by number of HCP successfully recruited for the training	8 weeks
Participants satisfaction with Health Care Provider (HCP) training	Self-reported measure of satisfaction	1 week

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Smita Banerjee, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 7, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 16, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): February 16, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 8, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 8, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): May 21, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 20, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 19, 2024
• Last Verified: February 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 18-183

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No