The Use of Simulation to Improve Resident Communication and Personal Experience at End-of-Life Care.

Overview

Pediatric residents report they are not sufficiently trained to communicate with families at a child's death. We performed a study to prove feasibility and assess whether simulation improves their communication and experience. Residents were assigned to intervention using simulation or control group. Communication was assessed by standardized patients and audiotapes of simulated encounters when they delivered bad news. Residents' perceptions of their communication were polled. The majority reported they never witnessed end-of-life discussions. All residents perceived themselves to be more capable at pronouncing the death of a child, and informing a family of a death after participating in either the interventional simulation or a bereavement retreat. Despite training within a pediatric intensive care unit, pediatric residents have little exposure to end-of-life discussions. Pediatric end-of-life simulation increases exposure of residents to end-of-life care and improves residents' perceptions of their communication.