An Interprofessional Simulation to Develop Communication Skills in Health Professional Students

Effective communication has been shown to demonstrate improved patient outcomes and satisfaction. Communication skills like conveying urgency, providing evidence-based recommendations, and remaining respectful seem to be sparse in healthcare education. It is imperative that health professional programs implement interventions to ensure that learners can effectively communicate and collaborate with other professions.Goals, objectives, and purpose: Objective: to evaluate the impact of this simulation activity in increasing awareness and self-reported competence in communication and collaboration. Purpose: provide students with a practice-based perspective in improving communication skills through interaction with practicing physicians.Methods/Methodology: Student pharmacists paired with physicians participated in this virtual simulation. The experience included pre-work, pre-survey, simulation session, and post-survey. During the simulation, the physicians challenged students’ recommendations, which required students to draw upon pre-work readings and alter communication techniques to strengthen conveying recommendations. Students rated level of agreement in pre and post surveys, 5 as strongly agree and 1 as strongly disagree, on their ability to perform the IPEC sub-competencies: C2, C7, TT3, and TT5.Results/Findings: Student self-perception in level of agreement to perform sub-competencies increased: C2 (3.91 vs. 4.36, p< 0.0001), C7 (3.84 vs. 4.37, p< 0.0001), TT3 (3.81 vs. 4.36, p< 0.0001), and TT5 (3.86 vs. 4.39, p< 0.0001). 4 themes emerged from reported key takeaways: 1) Importance of incorporating evidence, rationale, and patient specific parameters into recommendations 2) Navigating challenging discussions in a collaborative manner to achieve positive outcomes with a physician or colleague 3) Enhanced general communication skills and confidence through healthy conflict and 4) Utilizing intentional communication skills to promote collaboration and teamwork.Conclusions, implications, and/or curiosities: This experience shares an engaging opportunity to teach collaborative communication skills and teamwork when navigating challenging conversations. It demonstrated a statistically significant increase in interprofessional competencies of communication and teams and teamwork. Thematic analysis of the students’ takeaway identified communication and teamwork strategies learned from the experience.