Impact of a coaching program on resident perceptions of communication confidence and feedback quality.

Background: While communication is an essential skill for providing effective medical care, it is infrequently taught or directly assessed, limiting targeted feedback and behavior change. We sought to evaluate the impact of a multi-departmental longitudinal residency communication coaching program. We hypothesized that program implementation would result in improved confidence in residents' communication skills and higher-quality faculty feedback.

Developing a multi-departmental residency communication coaching program.

Background: Local needs assessments in our institution's surgery and neurology residency programs identified barriers to effective communication, such as no shared communication framework and limited feedback on nontechnical clinical skills. Residents identified faculty-led coaching as a desired educational intervention to improve communication skills. Three university departments (Surgery, Neurology, and Pediatrics) and health-care system leaders collaborated closely to develop an innovative communication coaching initiative generalizable to other residency programs.

National Pediatric Experience With Virtual Interviews: Lessons Learned and Future Recommendations.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic significantly impacted undergraduate and graduate medical education and created challenges that prevented a traditional approach to residency and fellowship recruitment and interviews. Early in the pandemic, the pediatric education community came together to support applicants and training programs and to foster an equitable recruitment process. We describe many of our community's innovations, including the use of virtual cafés to educate programs and highlight best practices for virtual recruitment and the use of regional webinars to highlight residency programs and provide information to applicants.

Perspectives from the Society for Pediatric Research: advice on sustaining science and mentoring during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic will leave an indelible mark on the careers of current medical trainees. Given the disruptions to medical education, economic impact on institutions, and the uncertainties around future job prospects, trainees are facing unprecedented challenges. This situation is especially concerning for futures of pediatric physician-scientist trainees, where concerns regarding maintaining the pipeline were well documented prior to the emergence of COVID-19.

Categorical Pediatric Residency Program Curriculum Needs: A Study of Graduating Residents and Residency Program Leadership.

Background: Pediatric residency programs must adapt their curriculum to meet evolving patient needs yet face limited resources to implement changes resulting in gaps. We performed a categorical pediatric residency program curriculum needs assessment to inform curriculum development efforts.

Methods: We analyzed data from the 2017 American Academy of Pediatrics Annual Survey of Graduating Residents and pediatric program and associate program director polls conducted at a 2019 pediatric residency program director national meeting.

Righting the Autonomy-Supervision Pendulum: Understanding the Impact of Independent Rounds on Medical Students, Residents, and Faculty.

Purpose: To explore trainee and faculty perspectives on an independent rounding intervention on general pediatrics wards at 2 institutions.

Method: In July 2018, the authors introduced independent rounds 1 to 2 times a week at 2 training sites. In this qualitative study, the authors conducted semistructured focus groups with a purposive sample of junior trainees (clerkship medical students and postgraduate year [PGY] 1 residents), senior trainees (PGY-2 and PGY 3-5 residents), and hospital medicine faculty between October 2018 and May 2019.

Patient safety after implementation of a coproduced family centered communication programme: multicenter before and after intervention study.

Objective: To determine whether medical errors, family experience, and communication processes improved after implementation of an intervention to standardize the structure of healthcare provider-family communication on family centered rounds.

Design: Prospective, multicenter before and after intervention study.

Setting: Pediatric inpatient units in seven North American hospitals, 17 December 2014 to 3 January 2017.

De-escalating Angry Caregivers: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Novel Communication Curriculum for Pediatric Residents.

Objective: Medical providers struggle when communicating with angry patients and their caregivers. Pediatric residents perceive communication competencies as an important priority for learning, yet they lack confidence and desire more training in communicating with angry families. Few curricula exist to support trainees with de-escalation skill development.

The Effect of Faculty Coaching on Resident Attitudes, Confidence, and Patient-Rated Communication: A Multi-Institutional Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: Despite a national focus on physician-patient communication, there is a paucity of literature on how patient and family feedback (PFF) can be used as a tool to help residents learn communication skills. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of coaching on residents' attitudes towards PFF, self-confidence in communication, and patient-rated communication skills.

Methods: This was an institutional review board-approved, randomized-controlled trial with pediatric residents at 3 institutions from 2015 to 2016.

Resident Experiences With Implementation of the I-PASS Handoff Bundle.

Background: The I-PASS Handoff Study found that introduction of a handoff bundle (handoff and teamwork training for residents, a mnemonic, a handoff tool, a faculty development program, and a sustainability campaign) at 9 pediatrics residency programs was associated with improved communication and patient safety.

Objective: This parallel qualitative study aimed to understand resident experiences with I-PASS and to inform future implementation and sustainability strategies.

Methods: Resident experiences with I-PASS were explored in focus groups (N = 50 residents) at 8 hospitals throughout 2012-2013.

Families as Partners in Hospital Error and Adverse Event Surveillance.

Importance: Medical errors and adverse events (AEs) are common among hospitalized children. While clinician reports are the foundation of operational hospital safety surveillance and a key component of multifaceted research surveillance, patient and family reports are not routinely gathered. We hypothesized that a novel family-reporting mechanism would improve incident detection.

The Discriminatory Patient and Family: Strategies to Address Discrimination Towards Trainees.

Purpose: Trainee mistreatment remains an important and serious medical education issue. Mistreatment toward trainees by the medical team has been described; mistreatment by patients and families has not. Motivated by discrimination towards a resident by a family in their emergency department, the authors sought to identify strategies for trainees and physicians to respond effectively to mistreatment by patients and families.

Caring for Children With Medical Complexity: Challenges and Educational Opportunities Identified by Pediatric Residents.

Objective: High-quality care for children with medical complexity (CMC) is in its infancy. Residents have the opportunity to view care for CMC with a fresh perspective that is informed by their work across diverse health care settings and significant time spent at the bedside. This study aimed to identify the challenges and potential solutions for complex care delivery and education from their perspectives.

Continuing education needs of pediatricians across diverse specialties caring for children with medical complexity.

Objective: Care for children with medical complexity (CMC) relies on pediatricians who often are ill equipped, but striving to provide high quality care. We performed a needs assessment of pediatricians across diverse subspecialties at a tertiary academic US children's hospital about their continuing education needs regarding the care of CMC.

Methods: Eighteen pediatricians from diverse subspecialties were asked to complete an online anonymous open-ended survey.

Outcomes of a randomized controlled educational intervention to train pediatric residents on caring for children with special health care needs.

Objective: To evaluate an innovative curriculum meeting new pediatric residency education guidelines, Special Care Optimization for Patients and Education (SCOPE).

Methods: Residents were randomized to intervention (n = 23) or control (n = 25) groups. Intervention residents participated in SCOPE, pairing them with a child with special health care needs (CSHCN) and faculty mentor to make a home visit, complete care coordination toolkits, and participate in case discussions.

Changes in medical errors after implementation of a handoff program.

Background: Miscommunications are a leading cause of serious medical errors. Data from multicenter studies assessing programs designed to improve handoff of information about patient care are lacking.

Methods: We conducted a prospective intervention study of a resident handoff-improvement program in nine hospitals, measuring rates of medical errors, preventable adverse events, and miscommunications, as well as resident workflow.