Clinical trial NCT06654310: The Fundamentals of Communication in Surgery
Official title: The Fundamentals of Communication in Surgery (FCS): a Pilot Study to Evaluate the Scalability and Impact of a Clinical Communication Curriculum
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
Conditions: Communication Research
Communication Programs
Keywords: Surgical Trainees
Fundamentals of Communication in Surgery
FCS
Best Case/Worst Case
BC/WC
Better Conversations
Lead sponsor: University of Wisconsin, Madison
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
name: University of Oklahoma
name: University of Pittsburgh
name: University of South Florida
name: West Virginia University
name: Duke University
name: Association for Academic Surgery
name: Inova Fairfax Medical Campus
First posted: 2024-10-23
Enrollment: 600
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: CASE_ONLY
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Participants will be from each participating site.

Brief summary: The goal of this observational study is to evaluate the impact of the FCS curriculum on achieving the learning objectives and resident reported self-efficacy with communication skills and determine the scalability of the training across a range of general surgery training programs

Detailed description: The researchers have developed a 5-year curriculum for surgical trainees called the Fundamentals of Communication in Surgery (FCS). The training includes core communication skills, e.g., expressing empathy, and frameworks to support informed consent and serious illness conversations, specifically Best Case/Worst Case and Better Conversations. The curriculum provides one developmentally appropriate two-hour session for each of the five years of surgical training. Because the training is skills based (e.g., scenario planning) and not procedure based (e.g., goals of care conversations) exercises are focused on specific techniques that build over subsequent sessions.

Researchers will invite 1-3 surgical attendings per site with an interest in surgical education to serve as trainers for the FCS curriculum.

All general surgery trainees at each institution will have access to the training program as part of their regularly scheduled educational curriculum, regardless of training year or status as a categorical resident. If there is interest, researchers will provide access to the curriculum to fellows and residents in affiliated programs, e.g., plastic surgery.

Researchers will invite site personnel who have roles related to surgical education including the program director and associate program director (if applicable), 2 to 3 attending surgeons who have high contact with residents in urgent care settings (e.g., emergency general surgery), 1 to 2 members of the education coordination team.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* surgical attendings with an interest in surgical education
* surgery trainees

Exclusion Criteria:

* none

Primary outcomes:
measure: Trainee Reaction to the Training
timeFrame: Day of training through 2 months post-training
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Trainee Self-Efficacy - Ability
timeFrame: Before training, directly after training, and 2 months post-training
measure: Receipt of Curriculum
timeFrame: 1 day of training
measure: Performance of Skills
timeFrame: Baseline (before training), directly after training, and 2 months post-training
measure: Fidelity to the Intervention
timeFrame: 1 day of training
measure: Trainee Self-Efficacy - Preparedness
timeFrame: Before training, directly after training, and 2 months post-training
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Madison
country: United States
facility: University of Wisconsin-Madison
state: Wisconsin
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Wisconsin, Madison
name: Margaret (Gretchen) L Schwarze, MD, MPP
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: