Improving Breaking Bad News in Pediatrics by Simulated Communication

NCT06376188 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 1582/2021 SimCom
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 46
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Breaking bad news, especially a death notice, is an essential part of the medical profes-sional communication. Being inadequately trained in those skills this may result in un-pleasant psychosocial consequences for everyone involved. This prospective, single-center, randomized controlled trial evaluated the delivery of a death notice to simulation parents out of the perspective of these parents (professional actors), the participants (students) and by video analysis. The simulation patient has prior unexpectedly died during a simulated resuscitation. The intervention group broke the bad news after receiving a short communication

Conditions

Communication; End of Life; Pediatric ALL

Keywords

communication; pediatrics; palliative care; simulation; resuscitation; breaking bad news

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• score by simulation parents

  evaluation of breaking bad news by simulation parents, via a newly created questionnaire, measured in points, minimum score of zero points, maximum score of 69 points, the higher the score the better the outcome

  up to 1 hour after the simulation

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• score by participants

  up to 1 hour after the simulation

• score of video analysis

  through study completion, an average of 1 year

Study Arms (2)

Control

NO INTERVENTION

no communication training prior to simulation scenario

Communication-Trained

OTHER

communication training prior to simulation scenario

Other: communication training

Interventions

communication training OTHER

The intervention group received a communication training session prior to the prebriefing and familiarization of the scenario, including advice on how to improve communication skills as well as how to create an optimal setting for difficult medical conversations. This communication training session has been created on the basis of an in-depth literature research.(Brock et al., 2019; Chumpitazi et al., 2016; Collins et al., 2018; Grant et al., 2016; Tobler et al., 2014; Vaidya et al., 1999; Yuan et al., 2019)

Communication-Trained

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 75 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Medical students, enrolled at the Medical University of Vienna.
• Successful completion the mandatory basic life support training "Block 16" in the third year of medical training and
• Successful completion of the mandatory communication seminar "Ärztliche Gesprächsführung B" also in the third year of medical training.
• Obtained written informed consent.

You may not qualify if:

• quality of the obtained video recordings were unsatisfactory and not usable for analysis

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Medical University of Vienna: lead

Study Sites (1)

Medical University of Vienna

Vienna, 1090, Austria

Location

Related Publications (5)

• Babu TA. Breaking bad news in the paediatric ICU: need for ethical practice. Indian J Med Ethics. 2013 Oct-Dec;10(4):278-9. doi: 10.20529/IJME.2013.085. No abstract available.

  PMID: 24152358 BACKGROUND

• Bittner-Fagan H, Davis J, Savoy M. Improving Patient Safety: Improving Communication. FP Essent. 2017 Dec;463:27-33.

  PMID: 29210557 BACKGROUND

• Brock KE, Tracewski M, Allen KE, Klick J, Petrillo T, Hebbar KB. Simulation-Based Palliative Care Communication for Pediatric Critical Care Fellows. Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2019 Sep;36(9):820-830. doi: 10.1177/1049909119839983. Epub 2019 Apr 11.

  PMID: 30974949 BACKGROUND

• de Moura Villela EF, Bastos LK, de Almeida WS, Pereira AO, de Paula Rocha MS, de Oliveira FM, Bollela VR. Effects on Medical Students of Longitudinal Small-Group Learning about Breaking Bad News. Perm J. 2020;24:19.157. doi: 10.7812/TPP/19.157. Epub 2020 Feb 14.

  PMID: 32097117 BACKGROUND

• Chumpitazi CE, Rees CA, Chumpitazi BP, Hsu DC, Doughty CB, Lorin MI. Creation and Assessment of a Bad News Delivery Simulation Curriculum for Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellows. Cureus. 2016 May 1;8(5):e595. doi: 10.7759/cureus.595.

  PMID: 27335708 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Communication; Death; Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior; Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Leukemia, Lymphoid; Leukemia; Neoplasms by Histologic Type; Neoplasms; Hematologic Diseases; Hemic and Lymphatic Diseases; Lymphoproliferative Disorders; Lymphatic Diseases; Immunoproliferative Disorders; Immune System Diseases

Study Officials

• Jennifer Bettina Brandt, MD MSc

  Medical University of Vienna

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 3, 2024
• First Posted: April 19, 2024
• Study Start: September 1, 2021
• Primary Completion: August 31, 2022
• Study Completion: September 30, 2022
• Last Updated: April 19, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-04

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

AU (1)