734 - Fostering the family meeting: Assessing pediatric resident communication education needs and enhancing preparedness and skill utilization through interprofessional communication skills training

Publication Number: 3710.734

Hadley Bloomhardt, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; Margaret Irwin, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; Chelsea Heneghan, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; Nick Purol, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States; Jennifer Snaman, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States

Background: Communication skills are core competencies for pediatric residents that underpin collaborative, interprofessional (IP) care. Family meetings are commonly used to share information and align care goals, yet many residents report feeling unprepared to lead them. Simulation and role-play effectively build communication skills, and IP clinicians can support reflection on professional identity and role, yet are not routinely included in resident education.

Objective: To assess pediatric residents' experience with communication education and to enhance their comfort and utilization of family meeting skills through an IP workshop

Design/Methods: We conducted an anonymous survey of pediatric residents at a tertiary care hospital to assess communication education needs, and comfort with aspects of family meetings using Likert scales. We then developed an IP communication skills workshop focused on information delivery and responding to emotion using facilitated role-play. The workshop was evaluated with a retrospective pre-post survey, and a 3 month follow up survey, including Likert scale questions assessing comfort and preparedness with communication skills, and a commitment to change question.

Results: Forty-five of 185 residents (24%) completed the needs assessment. Most reported prior communication training (mean 3 sessions), but few included role-play. Respondents had participated in an average of 8 family meetings (range 1-25) and led 4 (range 0-25). Most felt prepared to assess understanding (84%) and develop a plan for next steps (84%), but fewer felt prepared to navigate family disagreement (16%) or team conflict (27%) (Figure 1).

Thirty residents attended the workshops; 28 (93%) completed the post-session survey and 8/21 (38%) completed the 3-month follow-up. All respondents committed to applying the skills learned. Self-reported comfort improved across all domains, with largest gains in skills emphasized during the workshop: crafting a 'headline', sharing difficult news, and responding to emotion (Figure 2). At 3 months, all respondents reported applying skills, most frequently pre-meeting preparation (63%), "Ask-Tell-Ask" (50%), and responding to emotion (50%). Sustained comfort was highest for assessing understanding (88%) and incorporating IP perspectives (88%).

Conclusion(s): Pediatric residents frequently participate in family meetings but often feel underprepared, with limited skills-based and IP training. A role-play-based IP communication skills workshop improved residents' comfort with serious illness communication and strengthened their commitment to applying key skills in clinical practice.

FIgure 1
Pediatric Resident Preparedness for Aspects of Family Meetings

Figure 2
Retrospective pre-post evaluation: preparedness and comfort with family meeting communication skills