Serious Illness Communication Skills Training during a Global Pandemic

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
• Communication Skills Training

Background:

• Critical care fellowship training requires core communication skills, which were challenging to teach during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Critical Care Communication (C3) skills course, essential for fellows, required adaptation due to pandemic-related educational disruptions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a novel hybrid version of the C3 serious illness communication skills course.
• To compare learner outcomes between the new hybrid course and previous traditional in-person courses.

Main Methods:

• The C3 course was modified in 2020, incorporating virtual asynchronous and live didactic content.
• Small-group skills training remained in-person, utilizing trained actors and facilitators.
• Learner self-assessments were compared with historical data from 2012 onwards; informal feedback was also collected.

Main Results:

• Participants highly rated the hybrid course, similar to the traditional in-person version.
• Over 90% of learners felt well-prepared in most communication skills post-course in both formats.
• Learners expressed a preference for the virtual didactics component of the hybrid course.

Conclusions:

• A hybrid communication skills training for pulmonary and critical care fellows achieved comparable outcomes to the traditional in-person format.
• The study provides a framework for implementing similar hybrid courses.
• Learner preference suggests the virtual components of this training model will likely persist beyond the pandemic.