Fostering Civility in Learning Conversations: Introducing the PAAIL Communication Strategy

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Healthcare Communication
• Psychology

Background:

• Civility, psychological safety, and stress management are crucial for effective learning conversations in healthcare.
• Learner incivility can lead to fear, impaired judgment, reduced safety, and increased cognitive load, hindering feedback incorporation and error reporting.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel conversational strategy to mitigate the negative impacts of incivility in learning environments.
• To enhance psychological safety, reduce cognitive load, and improve clinical judgment among learners.

Main Methods:

• Integration of the Basic Assumption strategy with the PAAIL (Preview, Advocacy, Inquiry, Listen) conversational model.
• Facilitating open dialogue to surface educators' and learners' thinking processes.
• Identifying individual learning needs and developing clinical judgment skills through synergistic strategies.

Main Results:

• The combined strategy effectively reduces incivility and cognitive load in learning interactions.
• Improvements observed in psychological safety and the strengthening of clinical judgment skills.
• Learners demonstrated increased willingness to engage with feedback and discuss patient safety concerns.

Conclusions:

• The developed conversational strategy is effective in minimizing learner stress and anxiety.
• Optimized learning outcomes are achieved through enhanced psychological safety and clinical judgment.