Individuals with Sickle Cell Disease Using SBAR as a Communication Tool: A Pilot Study.

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a hemoglobinopathy that causes debilitating pain. Patients often report dissatisfaction during care seeking for pain or a sickle cell crisis (SCC). The Theory of Self-Care Management for SCD conceptualizes assertive communication as a self-care management resource that improves healthcare outcomes.

Objectives: This pilot study aimed to determine whether adults with SCD could learn to use the Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) communication method using a web-based trainer, and it aimed to determine their perceptions of the training.

Methods: The participants included = 18 adults with SCD. Inter-rater reliability (IRR) among three reviewers was used to evaluate the participants' ability to respond as expected to prompts using SBAR communication within the web-based platform. Content analysis was used to describe the participants' perspectives of the acceptability of using the SBAR patient-HCP communication simulation.

Results: The SBAR IRR ranged from 64 to 94%, with 72% to 94% of the responses being evaluated as the using of the SBAR component as expected. The predominant themes identified were (1) Patient-Provider Communication and Interaction; (2) Patients want to be Heard and Believed; (3) Accuracy of the ED Experience and Incorporating the Uniqueness of each Patient; and (4) the Overall Usefulness of the Video Trainer emerging.

Conclusions: This pilot study supported the usefulness and acceptability of a web-based intervention in training adults with SCD to use SBAR to enhance patient-HCP communication. Enhancing communication may mitigate the barriers that individuals with SCD encounter during care seeking and improve the outcomes. Additional studies with larger samples need to be conducted.