Interventions based on testing and communication training have been developed to reduce antibiotic prescribing in primary healthcare (PHC) for the treatment of acute lower respiratory infections (ALRTIs). However, research based on the experiences of PHC clinicians participating in ALTRIs interventions to reduce antibiotic prescribing in Barcelona is scanty.

This study aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of clinicians (physicians and nurses) on an intervention to reduce antibiotic prescription in PHC in Barcelona (Spain). This intervention was a randomised controlled study (cRCT) based on three arms: 1) use of a C-reactive protein (CRP) rapid test; 2) enhanced communication skills; and 3) combination of CRP rapid test and enhanced communication skills. In addition, the study aimed to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the detection of ALRTIs.

This qualitative study used a socio-constructivist perspective. Sampling was purposive. Participants were selected based on age, sex, profession, intervention trial arm in which they participated, and the socioeconomic area of the PHC where they worked. They were recruited through the healthcare centres participating in the study. Nine participants (7 women and 2 men) participated in two focus groups, lasting 65–66 min, in September–October 2022. Framework analysis was used to analyse the data.

Three themes were identified: ‘(The intervention) gave us reassurance’: intervention experiences among health professionals. This theme includes accounts of clinicians’ satisfaction with the intervention, particularly with CRP testing to support clinical diagnoses; ‘We don’t have time in primary healthcare’: structural and community resources in healthcare services. This theme encompasses clinicians’ experiences on healthcare pressures and PHC organisational structures barriers to PHC interventions; and ‘I only did three CRP’: impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the intervention. The last theme focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the intervention’s implementation.

CPR testing and promoting communication skills can be useful tools to support clinical decisions for ALRTIs. Structural barriers (e.g., healthcare pressures) and social inequities amongst service users were acknowledged as the main barriers for the implementation of ALRTIs interventions.

Integrating scientific research across multiple disciplines to advance breakthroughs is at the heart of clinical-translational science (CTS); among competencies that have been identified as essential for progress, skillful communication is critical. Few tools are available to address the social dynamics of the multidimensional diversity characteristics of CTS. We created the “Building a Diverse Biomedical Workforce Through Communication Across Difference (CAD)” workshop intervention. Based on principles of intercultural communication, CAD taught novel situationally-based communication skills to dyads of near-peer mentors and their undergraduate mentees. This study reports on the effectiveness of the operative mechanisms employed in CAD workshops for helping participants navigate highly diverse research environments.

Participant data were collected from multiple sources, including workshop artifacts as well as focus groups conducted post-workshop. Data were organized, individually coded, and then iteratively and collectively into pre-defined and emergent themes.

Responses indicated that the content and activities resonated strongly with participants and illuminated their understanding of challenges (both their own and others’) related to belonging, confidence, and connectedness to the research environment; several participants shared that they planned to use or had successfully used the skills. Focus group comments revealed that participants recognized the potential of the skills to include significant opportunities for non-instrumental interaction, contributing to a psychologically healthier workplace.

A brief intervention to develop communication skills across a variety of differences characteristic of clinical-translational settings improves communication between mentors and mentees and with peers and increases sense of belonging in the workplace, with potential benefits to wellbeing.

Caregivers are critical in advanced care planning (ACP) discussions, which are difficult but necessary to carry out patients’ goals of care. We developed and evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a communication training to equip caregivers of patients with malignant brain tumors with skills to navigate ACP conversations.

Caregivers completed a 2-h virtual training addressing ACP Discussions with Your Loved One and ACP Discussions with the Medical Team. A pre-training assessment was completed at baseline and a training evaluation was completed one day post-training. A subset of participants completed semi-structured interviews 2 months post-training.

Of 15 caregivers recruited, 9 attended the training and 4 completed qualitative interviews. Post-training, 40% felt confident in discussing ACP with loved ones and 67% felt confident doing so with healthcare professionals; 100% reported feeling confident in using skills learned in the training to facilitate these conversations. Data from qualitative interviews highlighted additional benefits of the training in empathic communication skills and fostering social support.

Our communication skills training shows promise in supporting caregivers’ skills and confidence in engaging in ACP discussions with patients and healthcare providers. A future randomized controlled trial with a larger and more diverse caregiving sample is needed to determine training efficacy.

One of the issues that has increasingly become relevant to medical practice is the ability to communicate well with patients. Better communication results in better care for the patient, as well as greater satisfaction for the physician. For this reason, the aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of a communication skills training program for medical residents (MR).

Eighty-six MR underwent a 6-month training program in three phases: a 12-h theory and practice workshop, a period of real practice, and a 4-h workshop in which the most challenging scenarios were role played with an actress. In each phase (T0, T1, and T2), participants’ beliefs about their competence in caring for patients’ psychosocial aspects and their self-confidence in communication skills were assessed.

No differences were found between T0 and T1 in participants’ beliefs of self-competence in psychosocial care. However, this competence significantly improved after completion of the entire program. Only 7 of the 12 areas explored in communication skills significantly improved between T0 and T1. However, after T2 completion, significant improvements were observed in all 12 areas.

The research results highlight the usefulness and importance of training young doctors to foster their psychosocial approach to patient care and improve their confidence in their own communication skills. The results also show the appropriateness of the structure of the training: the key features of the programme were the follow-up of the participants in three phases over 6 months, and a focus on the needs of the residents and the resolution of difficult clinical cases, with the support of an actress. Therefore, the training presented in this study may become a guide for other trainings in other contexts with similar objectives.

To explore the lived experience of delivering or receiving news about an unborn or newborn child having a condition associated with a learning disability in order to inform the development of a training intervention for healthcare professionals. We refer to this news as different news.

How healthcare professionals deliver different news to parents affects the way they adjust to the situation, the wellbeing of their child and their ongoing engagement with services. This is the first study that examined the lived experience of delivering and receiving different news, in order to inform the development of training for healthcare professionals using the Theoretical Domains Framework version 2.

We conducted qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of 9 different parents with the lived experience of receiving different news and 12 healthcare professionals who delivered different news. It was through these descriptions of the lived experience that barriers and facilitators to effectively delivering different news were identified to inform the training programme. Data analysis was guided by Theoretical Domains Framework version 2 to identify these barriers and facilitators as well as the content of a training intervention.

Receiving different news had a significant impact on parents’ emotional and mental wellbeing. They remembered how professionals described their child, the quality of care and emotional support they received. The process had a significant impact on the parent–child relationship and the relationship between the family and healthcare professionals.

Delivering different news was challenging for some healthcare professionals due to lack of training. Future training informed by parents’ experiences should equip professionals to demonstrate empathy, compassion, provide a balanced description of conditions and make referrals for further care and support. This can minimise the negative psychological impact of the news, maximise psychological wellbeing of families and reduce the burden on primary care services.

As communication skills are essential for medical practice, many medical schools have added communication skills training to their curricula in recent years. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the attitudes to communication skills of family medicine, internal medicine and general surgery residents.

Family medicine, internal medicine and general surgery residents of three training and research hospitals and one university hospital in Ankara were included in this cross-sectional study. A questionnaire was used for obtaining information about age, gender, marital status, graduation date and whether receiving any training for communication skills. The Turkish version of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale was used.

In all, 58 (50%) family medicine, 30 (25.9%) internal medicine, and 28 (24.1%) general surgery residents were accepted to participate in the study. Of the 116 residents, 58 (50%) were female and 58 (50%) were male, with a mean age of 29.47±4.63 years, and 68 (58.6%) of them were married; 59.5% of the participants received training about communication skills and 56.5% of them received it at medical school. The mean positive attitude scale (PAS) score was 3.85±0.58, and the mean negative attitude scale (NAS) score was 2.42±0.52. The PAS scores of female residents were higher than those of males (P=0.01). The PAS scores of residents who received communication skills training were higher than the scores of those who had not (P=0.01). The PAS scores of family medicine residents were higher and the NAS scores were lower than those of internal medicine and general surgery residents.

The communication skill attitudes of family medicine residents were better than those of internal medicine and general surgery residents.

The majority of people diagnosed with a dementia live at home with the support of their spouse. While this situation has advantages, it brings many challenges for the spouse, particularly dealing with the emotional impact of the behavioral changes associated with the dementia. A growing body of qualitative research has focused on understanding the spousal caregiver perspective of living with a partner diagnosed with dementia. The aim of this study was to complete a synthesis of the results of published qualitative studies that have explored the spousal experience.

An electronic database search of Ovid Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, and PsychINFO from January 1980 to September 2014 was conducted. Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Verbatim quotes of the participant interview data derived from these studies were collated and a thematic analysis was conducted.

Synthesis of the published data revealed five major themes. The theme of “loss of partner” was central, and around this central experience spouses described various processes: acknowledging change, being in crisis, adapting and adjusting, accepting and moving forward.

These findings provide insights into the day-to-day adjustments and experiences of spousal caregivers whilst highlighting the importance of considering the impact of cognitive decline and dementia in a social-relational context.

A systematic review was conducted in order to explore the effectiveness of communication-skills training interventions in end-of-life care with noncancer acute-based healthcare staff.

Articles were included if they (1) focused on communication-skills training in end-of-life/palliative care for noncancer acute-based staff and (2) reported an outcome related to behavior change with regard to communication. Sixteen online databases were searched, which resulted in 4,038 potential articles. Screening of titles left 393 articles that met the inclusion criteria. Abstracts (n = 346) and full-text articles (n = 47) were reviewed, leaving 10 papers that met the criteria for our review. All articles explored the effect of communication-skills training on aspects of staff behavior; one study measured the effect on self-efficacy, another explored the impact on knowledge and competence, and another measured comfort levels in discussing the end of life with patients/families. Seven studies measured a number of outcomes, including confidence, attitude, preparedness, stress, and communication skills.

Few studies have focused on end-of-life communication-skills training in noncancer acute-based services. Those that do have report positive effects on staff behavior with regard to communication about the end of life with patients and families. The studies varied in terms of the population studied and the health services involved, and they scored only moderately or weakly on quality. It is a challenge to draw a definite conclusion about the effectiveness of training interventions in end-of-life communication because of this. However, the findings from our review demonstrate the potential effectiveness of a range of training interventions with healthcare professionals on confidence, attitude, self-efficacy, and communication skills.

Further research is needed to fully explore the effectiveness of existing training interventions in this population, and evidence using objective measures is particularly needed. Ideally, randomized controlled trials or studies using control groups and longer follow-ups are needed to test the effectiveness of interventions.

Quality end-of-life care requires effective communication skills, yet medical and nursing students report limited opportunities to develop these skills, and that they lack confidence and the related competence.

Our purpose was to design, implement, and evaluate an educational intervention employing simulated patient actors to enhance students' abilities to communicate with dying patients and their families.

A study employing a mixed-methods design was conducted with prequalification nursing and medical students recruited from a London university. The first phase involved focus groups with students, which informed the development of an educational intervention involving simulated patient actors. Questionnaires measuring students' perceptions of confidence and competence levels when communicating with dying patients and their families were administered before and after the intervention.

The themes from focus groups related to responding to grief and anger, difficulties dealing with emotions, knowing the “right thing” to say, and a lack of experience. A significant increase (p < 0.5) in competence and confidence from baseline levels followed participation in the simulated scenarios.

Simulation was found to be an effective means of preparing students to communicate with dying patients and their families. The opportunity to develop communication skills was valued. Integration of educational interventions employing simulated patient actors into nursing and medical curricula may assist in improving the care provided to patients at the end of life.