Associations of Physician Empathy with Patient Anxiety and Ratings of Communication in Hospital Admission Encounters.

Objective: To assess the association between the frequency of empathic physician responses with patient anxiety, ratings of communication, and encounter length during hospital admission encounters.

Design: Analysis of coded audio-recorded hospital admission encounters and pre- and postencounter patient survey data.

Setting: Two academic hospitals.

Impact of a Simulation-Based Communication Workshop on Resident Preparedness for End-of-Life Communication in the Intensive Care Unit.

Introduction. Although residents frequently lead end-of-life (EOL) discussions in the intensive care unit (ICU), training in EOL care during residency has been required only recently, and few educational interventions target EOL communication in the ICU. This study evaluated a simulation-based intervention designed to improve resident EOL communication skills with families in the ICU.