Teaching communication skills to nursing home certified nursing assistants

Increasing numbers of terminally ill patients are admitted to nursing homes. Quality palliative care requires good communication skills, but certified nursing assistants (CNAs), who spend the most time with residents, are inadequately trained. They receive little education in communication during training programs or as in-services in the nursing home. Education and role-playing during their training program could be used to learn these skills, as could a series of short videos. Further research is needed to develop and test new methods of teaching communication skills to nursing home CNAs.