Exploring End-of-Life Care Team Communication: An Interprofessional Simulation Study

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Education
• Interprofessional Communication
• End-of-Life Care

Background:

• Effective team communication is crucial for high-quality healthcare delivery.
• Recent health science graduates report insufficient training in communication and end-of-life care.
• There is a need to enhance interprofessional collaboration skills among healthcare trainees.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a withdrawal of life-sustaining measures interprofessional simulation on team communication skills.
• To assess communication skills in medicine, nursing, and social work students.
• To identify key themes and challenges in interprofessional end-of-life care communication.

Main Methods:

• A 3-phase interprofessional simulation involving medicine, nursing, and social work students.
• Teams communicated with simulated patients, families, and each other in an end-of-life care context.
• Communication was analyzed using the Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Checklist and field notes.

Main Results:

• Fair to good communication was observed across nine domains.
• Team communication was strongest in 'shares information' and weakest in 'understands the patient's and family's perspective'.
• Key themes identified included Team Dynamics, Awkwardness, Empathy, Relationship Building, and Communicating Knowledge.

Conclusions:

• The interprofessional simulation effectively provided a learning opportunity for healthcare students in team communication for end-of-life care.
• The simulation highlighted specific areas for improvement, particularly in understanding patient and family perspectives.
• Addressing logistical challenges is key for successful implementation of similar interprofessional training.