Right-sizing interprofessional team training for serious-illness communication: A strength-based approach

Palliative care communication skills help tailor care to patients' goals. With a palliative care physician shortage, non-physicians must gain these serious illness communication skills. Historically, trainings have targeted physician-only groups; our goal was to train interprofessional teams.

Workshops were conducted to teach palliative care communication skills and interprofessional communication. Participants completed surveys which included questions from the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, the Ekman Faces tool, the Consultation and Relational Empathy measure, open-ended questions about empathy, and measures of effective interprofessional practice.

Participants felt the workshop improved their ability to listen (p < 0.001), understand patients' concerns (p < 0.001), and show compassion (p = 0.008). It increased the perceived value of peer observation (p < 0.001) and ability to reflect (p = 0.02) during complex conversations. Different types of professionals adopted different communication goals, though all affirmed the importance of active listening. Participants felt they improved their ability to work within an interprofessional team.

The course effectively trained 71 clinicians, the majority non-physicians, in serious illness communication and interprofessional team communication skills, and could be reproduced in similar settings.

We adapted an approach common to physician-only trainings to diverse interprofessional groups, added a team-based component using Applied Improvisation, and demonstrated its effectiveness.