Back-to-Basics Hospital-Wide Training Improves Inpatient Pediatric Care Experiences

Hospital leaders strive to improve care experiences. Many use training sessions to improve clinician-patient interactions.

We examined whether a hospital-wide Back-to-Basics training for clinical and nonclinical providers that focused on communication behaviors and safety protocols improved inpatient pediatric care experiences. The curriculum used didactics, video demonstrations, and role-play through interactive, fast-paced stations delivering content tailored to employee role. Child Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores were compared 24 months before (n = 544) and 13 months after the training (n = 643) to assess changes in inpatient pediatric care experiences.

We observed a statistically significant increase in the overall mean top-box scores after Back-to-Basics implementation for 5 (of 8 targeted) Child HCAHPS measures: Communication between you and child's nurses (3-percentage point [pp] pre-post increase, P = .04), How well nurses communicate with child (7-pp increase, P = .001), How well doctors communicate with child (6-pp increase, P = .007), Preventing mistakes and helping report concerns (4-pp increase, P = .03), and Helping child feel comfortable (4-pp, P = .03). We found no significant differences in models that tested whether the effect of Back-to-Basics differed by service line or by patient race, ethnicity, and language groups.

A small investment of curricular time devoted to communication skills and safety procedures across all staffing roles over 3 months improved Child HCAHPS communication-specific and safety scores. Because this training could be implemented in a variety of pediatric and inpatient settings to improve patient and family care experiences, further evaluation of the intervention in different pediatric hospital sites, settings (ie, hospital within a hospital), and contexts (urban, rural) is warranted.