Advancing Physician Skills in Discussing Development in Primary Care: A Brief Intervention for Pediatric Residents

General pediatricians are often the first to discuss developmental differences with caregivers. Unlike when sharing a definitive developmental diagnosis, there is often diagnostic uncertainty during these initial discussions and caregivers may not be prepared to hear the information. Research examining pediatric resident training to discuss developmental differences is lacking.

Study aims included the following: (1) Understand pediatric residents' experience and comfort sharing information about developmental differences. (2) Evaluate the impact of a brief educational intervention on residents' comfort, confidence, and perceived readiness.

In 2023, Pediatric residents (N = 48) from 2 Midwestern programs completed a pre-intervention survey regarding experience, comfort, and confidence discussing developmental differences. After a 90-minute skill-building educational intervention that included an adaptation of the SPIKES framework to fit discussions of development, residents completed postsession surveys. Matched responses were compared to evaluate changes in comfort and confidence (N = 22, 45%). Descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon signed rank tests, χ2 test, and McNemar analysis were used to analyze data.

Despite prior communication training, many residents lacked experience, comfort, and confidence in discussing developmental differences with caregivers pre-intervention. Post-intervention, residents reported significantly improved comfort and confidence with components of developmental conversations, and with the use of a consistent framework for discussing developmental differences.

Findings suggest that a one-time, brief, multimethod educational intervention using an adapted SPIKES framework can improve resident readiness to discuss developmental differences.