Positive Communication and Clinical Performance in Anaesthetic Care.

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The emotional and cognitive impact of positive communication between caregivers remains uninvestigated. The investigators hypothesize that positive communication during medical transmission can increase clinical performance for managing a subsequent stressful unexpected adverse event.

Detailed Description
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When caregivers deal with acute stressful adverse events, cognitive overload and negative emotions can impair cognitive abilities and decrease clinical performance. The beneficial effect of positive communication on patients' emotions has widely been studied. However, the emotional and cognitive impact of positive communication between caregivers remains uninvestigated. The primary purpose of this trial is to study the impact of positive communication between anaesthetic teams during medical transmissions on clinical performance for managing a subsequent stressful unexpected adverse event. Secondary outcomes are to study the impact of positive communication on physiological (heart rate variability) and psychological (psychometric scales) levels of stress.

Official Title
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Positive Communication Within Healthcare Team and Clinical Performance: a Prospective, Randomised and Controlled Simulation Trial.

Conditions
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Positive Communication, Clinical Performance, Anaesthesiology, High Fidelity Simulation

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Positive communication during medical transmission


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion criteria Anaesthetic teams composed with : 1 resident in anaesthesiology and critical care AND 1 anaesthetic nursing student in second year OR 1 anaesthetic nurse graduated less than 5 years ago Non-inclusion criteria Refusal to be videotaped No consent to participate Anaesthetic nurses working in a paediatric operating room.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: Randomized controlled trial, with a 1:1 allocation ratio
Masking: Double


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: Positive communication<br>Positive communication during medical transmission | Other: Positive communication during medical transmission<br>* Use of positive communication for medical transmission to the anaesthetic team who takes over the patient.<br>|
| No Intervention: Non-optimized communication<br>Medical transmission with non-optimized communication. | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Clinical performance of the anaesthetic team | Clinical performance in a simulated scenario of laryngospasm occurring in a 7 year old child under general anaesthesia. Clinical performance will be scored from 0 to 100 by two independent blinded assessors, using video records and a pre-established scenario-specific checklist. The primary endpoint will be the mean of the two assessments for each performance. | Each anaesthetic team will be involved once in the scenario. The scenario will last about 6 min (transmission not included). Both assessment of clinical performance will be made within 20 weeks of each simulation session | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Heart rate variability | Standard deviation of the average of RR intervals (SDNN in milliseconds) in participants | Before the scenario (during 5 min), during medical transmission (2 min), during the scenario before the laryngospasm (2 min), during the laryngospasm (4 min), during the debriefing (20 min), after the debriefing (5 min) | 
| Self-reported stress | Stress level self reported by participants on visual analogical scale (VAS from 0 to 100); One end of the scale represents the maximum conceivable symptom strength (i. e., 100%), the other end no symptoms whatsoever (i. e., 0%). | Before the scenario (at 5 min), after medical transmission (at 7 min), after the scenario (at 13 min), after debriefing (at 33 min) |