All Providers Better Communication Skills Program' (ABCs)

NCT06606470 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: 17801
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 350
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

High quality, person-centered communication for those living with serious illness benefits patients, families and clinicians. Evidence shows that clinicians rarely engage patients in these, sometimes challenging, discussions. Current education programs to build health care provider competency in serious illness communication are often inconsistent in defined purpose and use of terms. This education also tends to be oriented to treatments, not a person or do not cover the full range of difficult conversations between diagnosis and delivery of end-of-life care. The ABCs program is an education intervention for health care providers that features a blended format of online modules and interactive virtual workshops, relevant to clinicians at all levels of training and practice. This study will examine the effectiveness of this training (over no training) for impacting provider competency and behavior change in serious illness communication. All participants in this study will receive the full ABCs training, but at different times. The overall intended impact of this program is to improve clinician confidence and satisfaction in having conversations with patients and families about serious illness. The ultimate goal of the ABCs program is to increase access to early palliative care by empowering more providers to initiate this care.

Conditions

Education of Primary Care Clinicians; Palliative Care; Communication

Keywords

Palliative Care; Education; seriously ill communication; Observed Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE); Provider Training; Virtual learning

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Assessment of Clinical Encounter-Communications Tool (ACE-CT)

  The Assessment of Clinical Encounter-Communications Tool (ACE-CT) is completed by external raters of the recorded simulated practices, on a 5-point scale (1 to 5), with higher scores representing a better outcome. The ACE-CT is comprised of 14 items that were developed by the research team through a rigorous mixed methods Bayesian and Delphi process. This scale was derived from an extensive review of existing validated tools to measure quality of communication, including Communication in Oncology Questionnaire \[Com-On\], Family Meeting Communication Assessment Tool \[FaMCAT\] Comskil Coding System (CCS), Serious Illness Conversation Evaluation Exercise \[SIC-Ex\], and Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Form. Item selection was based on the evidence of elements of HCP communication that are of high importance to patients and families and in which there are gaps in current experiences and practices.

  All groups: 1) From enrollment to start of Intervention Group ABCs education, 2) Post ABCs education for Intervention Group, at 4 months, 3) Post ABCs education for Control Group, at 8 months. Sample: 6 months post ABCs (14 months).

Secondary Outcomes (6)

• Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (SE-12)

  All groups: 1) From enrollment to start of Intervention Group ABCs education, 2) Post ABCs education for Intervention Group, at 4 months, 3) Post ABCs education for Control Group, at 8 months. Sample: 6 months post ABCs (14 months).

• End-of-life Professional Caregiver Survey (EPCS)

  All groups: 1) From enrollment to start of Intervention Group ABCs education, 2) Post ABCs education for Intervention Group, at 4 months, 3) Post ABCs education for Control Group, at 8 months. Sample: 6 months post ABCs (14 months).

• Blended Learning Usability Evaluation - Questionnaire (BLUE-Q)

  Post ABCs education, at 4 months for Intervention Group, at 8 months for Control Group

• Qualitative Interviews

  Post ABCs education, at 4 months for Intervention Group, at 8 months for Control Group

• Questionnaire on Quality of Physician-Patient Interaction (QQPPI)

  All groups: 1) From enrollment to start of Intervention Group ABCs education, 2) Post ABCs education for Intervention Group, at 4 months, 3) Post ABCs education for Control Group, at 8 months. Sample: 6 months post ABCs (14 months).

Study Arms (2)

Intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Full ABCs education program

Behavioral: All providers Better Communication Skills program' (ABCs) interprofessional provider education

Control

NO INTERVENTION

No ABCs education program

Interventions

All providers Better Communication Skills program' (ABCs) interprofessional provider education BEHAVIORAL

The 'All providers: Better Communication Skills program' (ABCs) is a virtual, person-centred education curriculum for interprofessional health care providers. The ABCs program adopts a blended format (i.e., participants engage in both asynchronous online modules \[five\] and synchronous interactive workshops \[three\]) that has relevance to learners and clinicians at all levels of training and practice. The ABCs program focuses on four essential elements of being a skillful communicator: principles of effective communication, conversation structure, communication skills, and reflective practice. The program consists of virtual modules that provide any clinician with practical tools, tips, and strategies to implement when communicating with seriously ill patients and their families. Terminology is clarified and consistent, the complexities of conversations are simplified and the fundamental approach and structure can be applied to different contexts.

Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

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

You may qualify if:

• All individuals that work in a health care provision capacity including health care professionals, care coordinators and administrators are eligible to enroll and participate in the ABCs study.

You may not qualify if:

• Individuals, including patients, that do not work in a health care provision capacity.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• McMaster University: lead
• Health Canada: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

McMaster University

Hamilton, Ontario, L8N 3Z5, Canada

RECRUITING

McMaster University

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

RECRUITING

Related Publications (1)

• Seow H, Arora AK, Bainbridge D, Jia Z, Steinberg L, Incardona N, Levine O, Sanders JJ, Simon J, des Ordons AR, Zhang K, Myers J. All providers Better Communication Skills (ABCs) program: protocol for a randomized controlled trial assessing communication training effectiveness with interprofessional clinicians. BMC Palliat Care. 2025 Nov 29;25(1):4. doi: 10.1186/s12904-025-01954-5.

  PMID: 41318531 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Communication

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Study Officials

• Hsien Seow, PhD

  McMaster University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Hsien Seow, PhD

CONTACT

1-905-4837369; seowh@mcmaster.ca

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: INVESTIGATOR, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: The study design is a prospective stepped wedge group - randomized controlled trial (SWGRT) of interprofessional health care providers (HCPs) who enroll in the ABCs program. In this trial design, half of the participants begin the study in the control condition as randomly assigned, and cross-over to the intervention condition at a pre-determined time points, so that both the intervention and control groups eventually receive the intervention. The primary comparison will be between the trial arms upon completion of a program by the initial intervention group.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 11, 2024
• First Posted: September 23, 2024
• Study Start: September 23, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): January 30, 2027
• Last Updated: January 16, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-01

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

CA (2)