A systematic scoping review of teaching and evaluating communications in the intensive care unit

Abstract

Introduction: Whilst the importance of effective communications in facilitating good clinical decision-making and ensuring effective patient and family-centred outcomes in Intensive Care Units (ICU)s has been underscored amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, training and assessment of communication skills for healthcare professionals (HCPs) in ICUs remain unstructured. Methods: To enhance the transparency and reproducibility, Krishna’s Systematic Evidenced Based Approach (SEBA) guided Systematic Scoping Review (SSR), is employed to scrutinise what is known about teaching and evaluating communication training programmes for HCPs in the ICU setting. SEBA sees use of a structured search strategy involving eight bibliographic databases, the employ of a team of researchers to tabulate and summarise the included articles and two other teams to carry out content and thematic analysis the included articles and comparison of these independent findings and construction of a framework for the discussion that is overseen by the independent expert team. Results: 9532 abstracts were identified, 239 articles were reviewed, and 63 articles were included and analysed. Four similar themes and categories were identified. These were strategies employed to teach communication, factors affecting communication training, strategies employed to evaluate communication and outcomes of communication training. Conclusion: This SEBA guided SSR suggests that ICU communications training must involve a structured, multimodal approach to training. This must be accompanied by robust methods of assessment and personalised timely feedback and support for the trainees. Such an approach will equip HCPs with greater confidence and prepare them for a variety of settings, including that of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic.