Patient Communication Training Skills for High School Health and Wellness Classes

Abstract

Physicians are now trained in interpersonal skills intended to improve clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction while reducing provider burnout and decreasing the likelihood of litigation. However, shared decision-making by nature necessitates the need for patient communication training as well. Indiana requires a Health and Wellness class for high school graduation; this is the ideal time to reach young people - before they become adult patients navigating their own healthcare. Funded by an IU Heath Values Grant for Education, this project utilizes cutting edge technology in the form of a multimedia module that can be integrated into existing Health and Wellness classes. The award-winning Herron High School, ranked in the top 5% of schools nationwide by Newsweek, U.S. News and the Washington Post, has agreed to explore the application as the pilot school for this project. The interactive web-based module is designed to reach the student population as four learning units following the successful PACE adult patient training design by Ohio State health communication scholar, Dr. Don Cegala. Patient/provider exchanges filmed at University Hospital illustrate modeling of the typical, passive mode of communication followed by the effective mode of communication using the PACE model of patient training. The Medical Communication Competence Scale is applied as a pretest/posttest for check for attitudinal changes and a series of open feedback questions are available for student responses. This project is a work in progress and data analysis is under review.