Clinical trial NCT00933855: Patient Communication Training Intervention
Official title: A Feasibility Study of a Patient Communication Training Intervention
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Cancer
Keywords: Training Workshop
Communication
Questionnaires
Multiple Diseases
Lead sponsor: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Queens Health Network
First posted: 2009-07-07
Enrollment: 32
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Patients in the Queen Cancer Center Clinic waiting room.

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to test a class for Queens Cancer Center patients. We want to find out if patients think this program is helpful.

Detailed description: It is well accepted that effective physician-patient communication is associated with important outcomes. Communication training interventions for oncologists and other clinicians has been shown to be effective in changing behavior and improving outcomes. Less attention has been given to improving cancer patients' communication with their physicians. Most of the studies in this area have been focused on activating patients through training them to ask questions. Although question asking is a vitally important patient communication skill, other patient communication skills should also be encouraged for patients.

In the primary care setting, studies on patient communication training have focused on three additional communication skills to asking questions: presenting information, checking understanding, and expressing concerns. The goal of this study is to pilot test a patient communication workshop that builds on the work done in the primary care setting, offering an intervention that focuses on a broad range of skills. The proposal aims to improve communication skills in an underserved population, which may be a factor contributing to minority health disparities.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Patients seeing a physician at Queens Cancer Center (not family members or partners)
* Able to provide informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Less than 18 years of age (as per self-report)
* Cognitive or physical impairment rendering patients incapable of providing informed consent to participate in the study.
* As the workshop will be given in English and the measures are all written in English, subjects who are not fluent in English will be excluded.

Primary outcomes:
measure: To determine the feasibility of a patient communication training intervention.
timeFrame: 2 years
Secondary outcomes:
measure: To attain preliminary data on the acceptability of the intervention through patient ratings of effectiveness and usefulness of the intervention.
timeFrame: 2 years
measure: To attain preliminary data on the effect of a patient communication training intervention on patients' self-reported communication behaviors.
timeFrame: 2 years
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Jamaica
country: United States
facility: Queens Hospital Center
state: New York
Study officials:
affiliation: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
name: Carma Bylund-Lincoln, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: