| Title |
Communicating wisely: teaching residents to communicate effectively with patients and caregivers about unnecessary tests
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
BMC Medical Education, December 2017
|
| DOI | 10.1186/s12909-017-1086-x |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Geetha Mukerji, Adina Weinerman, Sarah Schwartz, Adelle Atkinson, Lynfa Stroud, Brian M. Wong |
| Abstract |
With rising healthcare costs and a focus on quality, there is a growing need to promote resource stewardship in medical education. Physicians need to be able to communicate effectively with patients/caregivers seeking tests and treatments that are unnecessary. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of an interactive workshop on residents' knowledge of resource stewardship and communication skills when counseling patients/caregivers about requests for unnecessary testing. Participants were 83 Internal Medicine and Pediatrics residents at the University of Toronto in 2014-15. The evaluation compared resource stewardship knowledge and communication skills of 57 (69%) residents that attended the resource stewardship workshop to 26 residents (31%) who did not. Knowledge and communication skills assessment consisted of a written test and a structured assessment using standardized patient raters, respectively. A linear regression was applied to determine predictors of overall communication skills performance. Workshop attendance resulted in better performance on the knowledge test (4.3 ± 1.9 vs. 3.1 ± 1.7 out of 8, p = 0.01), but not better performance on the communication skills assessment (4.1 ± 0.8 vs. 4.0 ± 0.9 out of 5, p = 0.56). Higher training level (p = 0.01) and knowledge test scores (p = 0.046) were independent predictors of better overall communication skills, after adjusting for gender, training level, workshop attendance, knowledge and self-reported prior feedback on communication skills. An interactive workshop can improve knowledge of resource stewardship, but improving communication skills with patients/caregivers about unnecessary testing may require additional training or reinforcement in the clinical learning environment. These teaching and assessment approaches can support the integration of education on resource stewardship into medical education. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 39 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 12 | 31% |
| Canada | 7 | 18% |
| United Kingdom | 4 | 10% |
| Belgium | 1 | 3% |
| Australia | 1 | 3% |
| Spain | 1 | 3% |
| Unknown | 13 | 33% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Members of the public | 16 | 41% |
| Scientists | 12 | 31% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 8 | 21% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 3 | 8% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 63 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 63 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 7 | 11% |
| Student > Master | 7 | 11% |
| Professor > Associate Professor | 6 | 10% |
| Student > Bachelor | 6 | 10% |
| Other | 3 | 5% |
| Other | 14 | 22% |
| Unknown | 20 | 32% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Dentistry | 18 | 29% |
| Nursing and Health Professions | 6 | 10% |
| Social Sciences | 4 | 6% |
| Unspecified | 3 | 5% |
| Psychology | 3 | 5% |
| Other | 8 | 13% |
| Unknown | 21 | 33% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 20. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 March 2018.
All research outputs
#1,789,282
of 24,988,543 outputs
Outputs from BMC Medical Education
#219
of 3,876 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#39,926
of 451,891 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Medical Education
#9
of 102 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 24,988,543 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,876 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.4. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 451,891 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 102 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its contemporaries.