Mastery Learning in Communication Skills

Mastery Learning in Communication Skills to Improve Milestone Performance and Burnout

The goal of this study is to determine whether mastery learning in communication skills can improve skills in a simulated environment and have translational improvements in outcomes. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Does mastery learning improve skills in the simulation laboratory? 2. Does mastery learning improve clinical skills as seen by milestone performance? and 3 Does mastery learning improve burnout levels? The study is a multi-institutional randomized controlled trial of anesthesiology residents from five different residency programs. Participants will be randomized to mastery training in communication skills and standard of care, which is vicarious learning. Researchers will compare these two groups to see if mastery learning improves skills and translational outcomes.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Burnout, Professional; Communication Research; Communication, Personal
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Mastery learning in communication skills

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 80
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Heather Ballard, MD; Phone Number: 3122275170; Email: hballard@luriechildrens.org

Study Locations

• United States
  • Illinois
    • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611
      • Recruiting
      • Northwestern University Simulation Center
      • Contact: Jeff Barsuk, MD; Phone Number: 312-503-7700; Email: jbarsuk@nm.org
      • Contact: Daniel Cronin, BS; Phone Number: 312-503-7700; Email: dcronin@northwestern.edu
      • Principal Investigator: Heather Ballard, MD

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Anesthesiology residents rotating at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participant refusal
• Study participants who have already undergone the mastery learning in difficult conversations course.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Quadruple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Standard of Care Group
Experimental: Mastery Learning Group	Behavioral: Mastery learning in communication skills; Participants will undergo simulation-based mastery learning curriculum in difficult conversations.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Communication skills	Post test checklist skills scores, a 16-item checklist was developed using the modified Delphi technique with possible scores of 0 (lowest) to 16 (highest). All items in the checklist are graded dichotomously and (1 if done correctly and 0 if not done or done incorrectly.	one year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Milestones Performance	The ACGME interpersonal and communication core competency is subdivided into three Anesthesiology Milestones: Patient and Family-centered communication, Interprofessional and Team Communication, and Communication within Health Care Systems. Each milestone is graded on a score of 1 (novice) to 5 (expert) by each residency program's Clinical Competency Committee (CCC).	two years
Burnout levels	The Maslach Burnout Inventory Scale (MBI-9) will be used to estimate the levels of burnout prior to participation in the intervention, immediately after course completion, and at 2 and 6 months after training. The MBI is a measure of job burnout defined by three subscales: emotional exhaustion (EE) (9 items), depersonalization (DP) (5 items), and professional accomplishment (PA) (8 items), each with 7-point Likert-type, frequency response scale (0 = never, 1 = a few times a year or less, 2 = once a month or less, 3 = a few times a month, 4 = once a week, 5 = a few times a week, 6 = every day) [1, 2]. Scales are scored such that higher scores indicate more of each construct. Higher scores on the EE and DP subscales indicate a higher burnout symptom burden; lower scores on the PA subscale indicate a higher burnout symptom burden.	1.5 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Heather Ballard, MD, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 18, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): January 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): January 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 19, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 27, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): August 7, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): November 18, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 15, 2024
• Last Verified: November 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Occupational Stress; Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological; Occupational Diseases; Burnout, Psychological; Burnout, Professional
• Other Study ID Numbers: 20235952

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: de-identified study data will be available upon request when study is completed and published

Drug and device information, study documents

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