Is Training Alone Enough? A Comparison of Serious Illness Communication Training With and Without Implementation Strategies.

Background: Communication skills training alone has shown limited impact on improving the frequency and quality of serious illness conversations (SICs). Implementing structured support strategies may enhance both adoption and sustained use in clinical practice. Design: Retrospective review of the im...

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Publicado en:Journal of Palliative Medicine Vol. 29; no. 2; pp. 213 - 217
Autores principales: Wang, Samantha X.Y., Fong, Rebecca, Hui, Felicia, Seevaratnam, Briththa, Nguyen, Duy, Teuteberg, Winifred
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Feb2026
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Feb2026
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      pub: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
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        atl: Is Training Alone Enough? A Comparison of Serious Illness Communication Training With and Without Implementation Strategies.
      aug:
        au:
          Wang, Samantha X.Y.
          Fong, Rebecca
          Hui, Felicia
          Seevaratnam, Briththa
          Nguyen, Duy
          Teuteberg, Winifred
        affil: Division of Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
      sug:
        subj:
          Communication Skills Training
          Implementation Science
          Advance Care Planning
          Documentation
          Professional-Patient Relations
          Conversation
          Human
          Retrospective Design
          Record Review
          Outpatients
          Inpatients
          Academic Medical Centers
          California
          Physicians
          Advanced Practice Registered Nurses
          Occupational Therapists
          Nutritionists
          Social Workers
          Case Managers
          Feedback
          Quality Improvement
          Mentorship
          Patient Identification
          Descriptive Statistics
          Chi Square Test
      ab: Background: Communication skills training alone has shown limited impact on improving the frequency and quality of serious illness conversations (SICs). Implementing structured support strategies may enhance both adoption and sustained use in clinical practice. Design: Retrospective review of the impact of Serious Illness Care Program (SICP) training and implementation in outpatient and inpatient settings at a single academic center. Setting: Stanford Health Care is a health system affiliated with the Stanford School of Medicine, with 2 hospital campuses and 60 ambulatory practices throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Participants: Physicians, physicians-in-training, advanced practice providers, and allied health professionals (occupational therapists, dieticians, social workers, and case managers) across departments. Intervention: From October 2020 to May 2023, our institution implemented the SICP, offering two communication skills training modalities: (1) Training Only and (2) Training with Implementation support, which included patient identification, data feedback, coaching, and department-specific quality improvement incentives. Analysis: We compared the adoption of SICs by examining the documentation frequencies of trained clinicians. Clinicians were categorized as never user (0 conversations), seldom users (1–4 conversations), occasional users (5–11 conversations), and frequent users (12 or more conversations) according to the number of documented SICs within one year after training. We also assessed the number of sustained users, defined as clinicians who documented SICs at least once a month over a six-month period following training. Results: Within the first 12 months of training, the Training Only group had a significantly higher percentage of never users compared with the Training with Implementation cohort (78.9% vs. 57.6%, p < 0.01). The Training with Implementation group had higher SICs documented across all other usage categories: seldom users (23.5% vs. 14.6%, p < 0.01), occasional users (10.2% vs. 4.2%, p < 0.01), and frequent users (8.5% vs. 2.2%, p < 0.01). Compared with the Training Only group, the Training with Implementation group also had more sustained users (9.4% vs. 1.6%, p < 0.01) who consistently documented SIC monthly for six months. Conclusion: Implementation support strategies enhance both the initial adoption and sustained use of SICs beyond training alone.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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