On-site Supportive Communication Training in Doctor-patient Communication (On-site-SCT)

June 25, 2024 updated by: Vejle Hospital

On-site Supportive Communication Training in Doctor-patient Communication: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

The goal of this randomized, controlled clinical trial is to test a new concept for communication skills training (on-site supportive communication training (on-site SCT) in cancer care. The study aims to determine the impact of on-site SCT on patients' rating of oncologists' communication abilities.

Oncologists participating in the study will be randomly allocated to the intervention or control group. In the intervention group each doctor will have a total of three intervention days at intervals of 3-4 weeks. On an intervention day, a psychologist will sit in and observe doctor-patient consultations. After the first consultations, 30 minutes are allocated for feedback to the doctor by the psychologist. After the last consultation of the day, 60 minutes are allocated for thorough feedback and establishment of learning goals to focus on until the next intervention day. Doctor's in the control group will conduct communication as usual.

Researchers will compare the control and intervention groups to see if patients' rating of doctors' interpersonal and communication skills increase when the doctors have participated in on-site SCT. The 15-item Communication Assessment Tool (CAT) will be used.

It will also be investigated whether on-site SCT increases the doctors' rating of themselves in relation to communication efficacy and job satisfaction and decrease their experience of burnout.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Oncologists carry a heavy responsibility when delivering information to cancer patients and helping them navigate through decisions about life-altering treatments, survivorship, and end-of-life care. Comprehensive person-centered psychosocial cancer care should be adapted to the individual patient, which is obviously a challenging task (Dilworth, et al. 2014). Individualized and empathic communication, on the other hand, is of substantial importance to patient satisfaction, adherence to treatment, empowerment, and the ability to navigate in the disease trajectory (Gattellari, et al. 2001; Stewart 1995; Vogel, et al. 2009).

The quality of the communication in medical care has been shown to influence health outcomes, as it increases the risk of unnecessary treatment and is linked to insufficient pain relief and higher anxiety levels (Thorne, et al. 2005). Therefore, considerable effort has been dedicated to interventions that may improve the communication skills of healthcare professionals involved in cancer care (Moore, et al. 2018). The primary purpose has been to improve the quality of the doctor-patient-communication including the doctors' interpersonal skills.

Previous papers have suggested direct feedback on observed situations as an ideal method for improving communication skills (Anderson 2012; Burgess, et al. 2020), but to the best of our knowledge, no randomized clinical trials have used patient feedback during on-site training. Studies on communication skills training courses with recorded consultations/role-play have shown significant effect on key communication skills (Fallowfield, et al. 2002) and increased self-efficacy (Ammentorp, et al. 2007). Two studies have demonstrated long-term maintenance of acquired skills (Finset, et al. 2003; Gulbrandsen, et al. 2013). Until now, no effect on burnout has been demonstrated (Bragard, et al. 2010a; Bragard, et al. 2010b).

Clinical supervision and training aims to develop clinical practice and provide a protected space to allow an educational and reflective process to occur. Although there is still no empirical definition of the term supervision (Milne 2007), in 2004 Bernard and Goodyear defined it as "an intervention provided by a more senior member of a profession to a more junior member or members of that same profession"(Bernard 2004). On this premise, psychologists cannot formally supervise doctors and other terms must be used. In this project we therefore use the term "on-site supportive communication training" (on-site SCT) when referring to the intervention given by the psychologists.

Psychologists have a long tradition of working with communication, creating a reflective learning space, making observations and providing feedback. It is therefore highly relevant to use dedicated psychologists to investigate the effect of on-site SCT on the doctors' communication and on their experienced level of self-efficacy, satisfaction and burn-out.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

89

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Denmark
      • Vejle, Denmark, 7100
        • Department of Oncology, University Hospital of Southern Denmark - Vejle Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Medical doctors
  • Employed at the Department of Oncology, Vejle Hospital, University Hospital of Southern Denmark or Aalborg University Hospital, or Zealand University Hospital, Roskilde/Naestved.
  • Work in the outpatient clinics at the participating departments

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Doctors whose employment contracts will expire during the study and who do not plan to continue working at the department.
  • Doctors who are not willing to sign the informed consent form.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Intervention
Each oncologist will have a total of three intervention days with a psychologist sitting in and observing the doctor-patient consultations and subsequently providing feedback.
Behavioral: On-site supportive communication training
On-site supportive communication training
No Intervention: Control
Oncologists in the control group will conduct consultations as usual.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Difference in rate of "Excellent" scores on the Communication Assessment Tool between the intervention and the control group.
Time Frame: 6 months
Patients rate the doctor's communication skills right after the consultation.
6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in oncologists' rating of own communication efficacy according to the "Self-efficacy in Health Communication" tool from before to after on-site communication training.
Time Frame: 6 months
The Self-efficacy in Health Communication tool consists of 12 questions eliciting the healthcare professionals' perceived self-efficacy in communication with patients using a 10-point scale from "very uncertain" (1) to "very certain" (10).
6 months
Change in oncologists' rating of burnout according to part 2 and 3 of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory tool from before to after on-site communication training.
Time Frame: 6 months
The reply options in relation to burnout range from 1 (To a very high degree/always), to 5 (To a very low degree/never-almost never)
6 months
Change in oncologists' rating of job satisfaction from before to after on-site communication training.
Time Frame: 6 months
Job satisfaction is measured in Denmark every other year at the nation-wide employee satisfaction survey, which survey offers a large amount of comparable data. Five items directly concerning job satisfaction will be extracted from the survey.
6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Vejle Hospital

Collaborators

Zealand University Hospital
Aalborg University Hospital

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Kerstin Kiis Antonsen, MD, University Hospital of Southern Denmark - Vejle Hospital

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 1, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 25, 2024

Study Completion (Actual)

June 25, 2024

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 24, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 24, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

May 3, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 26, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 25, 2024

Last Verified

June 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • On-site SCT

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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