GITalk: Communication Skills Training for Gastroenterology Fellows Improves Self-Assessed Preparedness for Serious Illness Conversations.

Background

Despite caring for patients with serious illnesses, gastroenterology (GI) fellows rarely receive training in serious illness conversations (SIC).

Objectives

To describe the development, implementation, and assessment of GITalk, a novel SIC training for GI fellows.

Design

GITalk was based on the REMAP framework and involved two simulated encounters. One case involved a patient with decompensated cirrhosis, and the other case was about feeding tube placement in someone with moderate to severe dementia. Setting and Subjects: GI fellows in an academic medical center in the USA. Measurements: Demographics of the participants, evaluation of the course content, and self-assessed preparedness for SIC.

Results

A total of 23 GI fellows participated over 4 consecutive years. Participants had significantly higher mean post-training self-assessed preparedness scores compared to pre-training across all 9 survey questions. 91% of participants strongly agreed with the statement: "I would recommend this training to other fellows."

Conclusions

Participants in GITalk reported substantial improvement in self-assessed preparedness for navigating SIC.