An Educational Intervention to Improve Resident Comfort With Communication at the End of Life

NCT ID: NCT01150968

Last Updated: 2011-02-10

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 166 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2010-03-31
• Study Completion Date: 2010-06-30

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the addition of teaching on communication at the end of life to the pre-existing resident curriculum will positively impact residents' knowledge and attitudes regarding communication at the end of life.

Detailed Description

Previous research has demonstrated a lack of resident training in communication at the end of life. This can lead to anxiety on the part of residents and poor experiences with these conversations. Residents at UCSF, and affiliated sites, participate in a daily formal teaching session from 12-1 pm and an informal case conference, known as Morning Report, from 7:30-8:30 am (8-9 am at VAMC). We propose to administer a pre-intervention survey to residents to assess knowledge and attitudes regarding communication at the end of life. Over two months, residents will receive one lecture during the noon session. Clinical cases will be presented for discussion during three sessions of morning report. All sessions are voluntary and take place at all three training sites, UCSF, SFGH, and the VAMC. As residents rotate every two months between the inpatient and outpatient settings, the intervention will be repeated once to ensure that the majority of residents have the opportunity to participate. A post-intervention survey, identical to the pre-intervention survey, will be administered to assess for impact of the educational intervention. This project only involves UCSF Internal Medicine residents. No patients will be involved in this study.

Conditions

End of Life Communication

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Internal Medicine Residents

All UCSf Internal Medicine residents for 2009-2010

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

End of life education

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Residents will participate in one hour, case-based, interactive teaching sessions on end of life communication.

Interventions

End of life education

Residents will participate in one hour, case-based, interactive teaching sessions on end of life communication.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• UCSF internal medicine resident

Exclusion Criteria

• Not UCSF internal medicine resident

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of California, San Francisco

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

UCSF

Locations

UCSF Program in Medical Ethics

San Francisco, California, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

10035736

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id