Communication Skill Training Program for Occupational Therapy Interns

Education, Medical Clinical Trial

— COPE  

Official title:

Development and Evaluation of a Communication Skill Training Program for Occupational Therapy Interns

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05434221
• Other study ID #: 202006114RINC
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 23, 2020
• Est. completion date: December 30, 2025

Study information

• Verified date: June 2022
• Source: National Taiwan University Hospital
• Contact: Sheau-Ling Huang, Ph.D.
• Phone: +886-3366-8179
• Email: cathy[@]ntu.edu.tw
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Effective communication is one of important skills in occupational therapy (OT) practice, affecting the effectiveness and quality of therapy. Although there are only a few courses on communication skills related to OT, there is a lack of a complete, suitable, and evidence-based OT communication skills teaching programs that can effectively improve the interns' communication skills. The purpose of the study is to develop a communication skills training program for occupational therapy interns in physical dysfunction practice (COPE), and examine the effectiveness of COPE.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 216
• Est. completion date: December 30, 2025
• Est. primary completion date: June 30, 2025
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 20 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

[interns]

• age = 20 years

• an intern of occupational therapy

[patients]

• age = 20 years

• enable to communicate with the others

Exclusion Criteria:

[interns]

• unwilling to be recorded

[patients]

• have communication barriers

• unwilling to be recorded

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Education, Medical

Intervention

Other:
• COPE
The experimental group receives the COPE during their internships. The COPE consists of two part: (1) communication skills teaching and simulation practice; (2) clinical communication teaching: record the clinical treatment process of the interns and turn them into verbatim drafts. Experts then complied the strengths and weaknesses of the interns' communication skills based on the verbatim manuscripts and gave feedback on the interns' communication skills. The interns in the experimental group will participate 1 time of the communication skills teaching and simulation practice, and 3 times of the clinical communication teaching in three months.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Taiwan	National Taiwan University Hospital	Taipei

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
National Taiwan University Hospital

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Taiwan, 

References & Publications (3)

Calhoun AW, Rider EA, Peterson E, Meyer EC. Multi-rater feedback with gap analysis: an innovative means to assess communication skill and self-insight. Patient Educ Couns. 2010 Sep;80(3):321-6. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2010.06.027. Epub 2010 Jul 17. — View Citation

Peterson EB, Calhoun AW, Rider EA. The reliability of a modified Kalamazoo Consensus Statement Checklist for assessing the communication skills of multidisciplinary clinicians in the simulated environment. Patient Educ Couns. 2014 Sep;96(3):411-8. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2014.07.013. Epub 2014 Jul 19. — View Citation

Wu TY, Lien BY, Lequerica AH, Lu WS, Hsieh CL. Development and Validation of the Occupational Therapy Engagement Scale for Patients with Stroke. Occup Ther Int. 2019 Mar 6;2019:3164254. doi: 10.1155/2019/3164254. eCollection 2019. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Experts assessed interns' communication skills:Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Forms (GKCSAF)-Faculty version	The experts will use the questionnaire named GKCSAF (faculty version) to assess interns' communication skills via verbatim draft of the audio-recording.; The GKCSAF contains 9 items: build a relationship, open the discussion, gather information, understand the patients' perspective, share information, reach agreement, provide closure, demonstrate empathy, and communicate accurate information. Each item is rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The total score ranges from 5 to 45. The higher scores indicate better communication skills.	during procedure
Secondary	Patients or caregivers assessed interns' communication skills:Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Forms (GKCSAF)-patient/caregiver version	The patients will use the questionnaire named GKCSAF (patient/caregiver version) to assess the interns' communication skills after their occupation therapy.; The items and the score range are the same with the faculty version.	during procedure
Secondary	Interns self-reported communication skills:Gap-Kalamazoo Communication Skills Assessment Forms (GKCSAF)-self-assessment version	The interns will use the GKCSAF (self-assessment version) to assess their communication skills via verbatim draft of the audio-recording after they communicate with the patients.; The items and the score range are the same with the faculty and patient/caregiver version.	during procedure
Secondary	Patients' engagements in occupational therapy:Occupational Therapy Engagement Scale (OTES)	The experts will use OTES to assess patients' engagement in occupational therapy for one week.; The OTES is a questionnaire which is designed to assess patients' engagement level in occupational therapy. The OTES contains 12 items, such as "commit in therapy activities without being urged", "sustain attention until the end of one therapeutic activity", and so on. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale. The total score ranges from 0 to 36. A higher sum score indicates a higher level of engagement.	during procedure