(1387) Simulation-Based Bidirectional Communication Training: Retention and Validity in Medical Students

Introduction: Communication skills are essential for all critical care providers.
Strengthening the patient-clinician relationship through improved communication optimizes outcomes and patient satisfaction. Simulation is utilized to teach and measure such skill. Our prior study demonstrated improvement in student skill and confidence with a brief simulation training session in the delivery of difficult news in an ICU setting. Our current study aims to determine the long-term benefit of bidirectional communication training by assessing the subjects’ attitudes on the validity and relevance of their experience seven months after completing it.

Methods: The 37 medical students who participated in our initial study were invited to participate in a follow up study seven months later. To assess skill confidence, each subject received a 13-item questionnaire, including eight old questions from the post-training assessment and five new questions to measure attitudes regarding the simulation’s applicability to real world practice, relevance in medical education, ability to transfer skills to future conversations, and accuracy in performance measurement. Incentives to complete the study included a gift card and a personal score report from the simulation experience.

Results: Our retention rate was 59% (n=22). Confidence in verbal communication, opening discussions, gathering information, understanding families’ perspective, sharing information, and reaching an agreement remained unchanged from the simulation experience. Confidence in nonverbal communication was significantly higher after the follow up period (4.09/5 versus 4.55/5, p=0.006). Participants rated the simulation highly on relevance (mean=4.86/5), comfort level in real life situations (4.23), importance to future practice (4.64), authenticity of the conversation (4.68), and accuracy of measurement tools (4.5).

Conclusions: This study confirmed that our simulation training in bidirectional communication was effective in preparing medical students for difficult conversations and promoted long-term confidence. Additionally, students were highly satisfied with the experience and felt it was valuable to their medical education. Based on our findings, we recommend the incorporation of bidirectional communication simulation training for all medical students.