Difficult Patient Encounters: Assessing Pediatric Residents' Communication Skills Training Needs

Introduction Difficult patient encounters (DPEs) are common and can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction among healthcare providers. Pediatric resident physician experiences with DPEs and curricula for enhancing necessary communication skills have not been well described. Materials and methods We used a cross-sectional survey research design for our needs assessment on resident experiences with DPEs. Thirty-three pediatric residents completed this anonymous survey. The survey assessed residents’ experiences with and self-efficacy regarding DPEs. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data. Additionally, two authors independently coded free response data to include in the narrative description of the survey results. Results These survey results include the views of 92% of the residents in the program (33/36). Residents reported a greater frequency of difficult encounters in the inpatient setting than the outpatient setting. The majority of residents rated their communication skills during DPEs as “fair” or “good” (70%, 23/33). Residents tended to have lower confidence when discussing chronic pain, managing parental insistence on a plan, and breaking bad news. They generally reported higher levels of anxiety for scenarios involving angry patients and families, families insisting on a plan, and when breaking bad news. Residents cited many challenges, including working with angry and demanding families. Additionally, residents described difficulty with managing discordant opinions between the family and the healthcare team regarding the care plan. Residents expressed a preference for learning how to manage challenging patient encounters using clinical experiences. Simulation, discussion, and observation of role models also rated highly as educational methods for increasing skills, while most residents rated lectures as the least important means of training skills for these difficult encounters. Discussion We found that pediatric residents experience difficult encounters frequently, especially in the inpatient setting. Individual residents vary in their confidence and anxiety levels with different types of difficult encounters and may benefit from not only general communication skills training, but also from targeted training to equip them for the particular contexts they find most challenging. Residents value interactive structured learning activities, including discussion and simulation. Residents most consistently value the opportunity to lead challenging conversations in the clinical setting, especially when followed by effective debriefing and feedback by trained faculty preceptors. Conclusions Next steps include creating a “Difficult Encounters” communication skills curriculum informed by this needs assessment, which aim to enhance patient care as well as increase resident self-efficacy. In addition to the curriculum development for residents, it may be helpful to initiate faculty development on how to supervise resident-led difficult conversations and provide effective debriefing and feedback to promote resident growth.