Family Conference Simulation Designed for Physician Assistant Students and Chaplain Residents

Physician Assistants (PAs) are increasingly likely to work in clinical areas where family conference skills are needed, but there is currently a lack of family conference education in PA program curricula. To (1) describe a novel interprofessional education (IPE) event for PA students and chaplain residents; (2) examine whether participating in the IPE event is associated with improvements in attitudes and knowledge regarding interprofessional teams; and (3) describe participant perceptions about the event. Two cohorts of PA students and chaplain residents completed a required interprofessional simulation activity involving a critically ill patient and a family conference. All participants completed pre- and postsimulation activity questionnaires. Bivariate tests were utilized to analyze the quantitative data. Over two years, 171 PA students and 20 chaplain residents completed the activity at a school of medicine in the United States. Pre- and postactivity measurements included role-specific questions plus overlapping sections regarding roles and responsibilities of the other discipline, comfort facilitating end-of-life discussions, and the value of IPE. For PA students, there was a statistically significant increase for all questionnaire items. The largest effect size increases were in PA students' confidence in provider-patient communication at the end of life (Cohen's d > 1.1). Chaplain data demonstrated increases in knowledge of the PA role and likelihood of consulting with PAs in the future. This simulation event improved participant attitudes and knowledge relating to interprofessional interactions in the setting of an end-of-life family conference, and may contribute to more effective collaboration between PAs and chaplains in the clinical setting.