Abstract
Communication skills are an important part of patient care, but an often neglected part of residency training. Longitudinal active coaching of communication has the potential to effectively improve communication curricula. A novel communication coach curriculum was implemented with approximately half of a pediatric residency class. Residents were coached by both a parent and faculty coach on multiple occasions throughout their intern year. Effectiveness was evaluated through self-assessment, direct observation, chart review, and follow-up phone calls with families. This longitudinal communication coach curriculum was well-received and resulted in increased self-awareness of communication skills. Coachable behaviors improved in intervention residents, and their patients spoke more positively of their experiences with communication. Additionally, these patients were less likely to be readmitted than patients cared for by control residents. A longitudinal communication coaching model is a feasible and effective curriculum for pediatric residents.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
