Use of email in a family practice setting: Opportunities and challenges in patient- and physician-intiated communication

10.1186/1741-7015-4-18BMC Medicine41

Accuracy and congruence of patient and physician weight-related discussions: From project CHAT (Communicating health: Analyzing talk)

10.3122/jabfm.2014.01.130110Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine27170-7

Physician empathy and listening: Associations with patient satisfaction and autonomy

10.3122/jabfm.2011.06.110025Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine246665-67

Hypertension improvement project: Randomized trial of quality improvement for physicians and lifestyle modification for patients

10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.109.134874Hypertension5461226-1233HPRT

Efficacy of a couple-based randomized controlled trial to help latino fathers quit smoking during pregnancy and postpartum: The parejas trial

10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-14-0841Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention242379-38

Primary Care Physicians' Discussions of Weight-Related Topics with Overweight and Obese Adolescents: Results from the Teen CHAT Pilot Study

10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.01.002Journal of Adolescent Health452205-207JADH

Hypertension Improvement Project (HIP): Study protocol and implementation challenges

10.1186/1745-6215-10-13Trials101

Communication coaching for sonographers (CCS): Preliminary evaluation of a novel intervention to improve unexpected news delivery

Objective Obstetric ultrasound scans provide real-time results. In some organisations and countries, the immediate communication of results by sonographers to patients is standard practice, but there is a lack of evidence-based training to support them with this challenging task. This pilot study evaluated a novel communication coaching intervention to improve sonographer communication. Methods Coaches met with sonographers(N = 15) three times. Sonographers collected three audio recordings of scans involving unexpected news communication at baseline(R1), post-Session 1(R2) and post-Session 2(R3), which were rated for communication skills. Participants self-reported communication confidence and burnout before(T1) and after(T2) the intervention. Feedback was collected at T2. Data were analysed using paired-samples t-tests with bootstrapped significance estimates. Results N = 10 sonographers completed the intervention. There were significant increases in communication skills(R1 m = 4.85, SD = 1.07; R3 m = 6.73, SD = 1.80, p = 0.003) and communication confidence(T1 m = 28.00, SD = 6.27; T2 m = 32.80, SD = 6.05, p = 0.005). There were no significant changes in burnout(p > 0.05). All respondents said they would recommend the intervention and most strongly agreed it was engaging(n = 8; 89%) and imparted useful skills(n = 8; 89%). Conclusion Communication coaching is an acceptable, potentially effective tool for improving communication of unexpected news by sonographers in ultrasound. Innovation This is the first evaluation of an intervention to support obstetric sonographers with news delivery