Communication skills training for physicians improves patient satisfaction
Open accessAbstract
Background Skilled physician communication is a key component of patient experience. Large-scale studies of exposure to communication skills training and its impact on patient satisfaction have not been conducted.Objective We aimed to examine the impact of experiential relationship-centered physician communication skills training on patient satisfaction and physician experience.Design This was an observational study.Setting The study was conducted at a large, multispecialty academic medical center.Participants Participants included 1537 attending physicians who participated in, and 1951 physicians who did not participate in, communication skills training between 1 August 2013 and 30 April 2014.Intervention An 8-h block of interactive didactics, live or video skill demonstrations, and small group and large group skills practice sessions using a relationship-centered model.Main measures Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), Clinician and Group Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CGCAHPS), Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), self-efficacy, and post course satisfaction.Key results Following the course, adjusted overall CGCAHPS scores for physician communication were higher for intervention physicians than for controls (92.09 vs. 91.09, p < 0.03). No significant interactions were noted between physician specialty or baseline CGCAHPS and improvement following the course. Significant improvement in the post-course HCAHPS Respect domain adjusted mean was seen in intervention versus control groups (91.08 vs. 88.79, p = 0.02) and smaller, non-statistically significant improvements were also seen for adjusted HCAHPS communication scores (83.95 vs. 82.73, p = 0.22). Physicians reported high course satisfaction and showed significant improvement in empathy (116.4 ± 12.7 vs. 124 ± 11.9, p < 0.001) and burnout, including all measures of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Less depersonalization and greater personal accomplishment were sustained for at least 3 months.Conclusions System-wide relationship-centered communication skills training improved patient satisfaction scores, improved physician empathy, self-efficacy, and reduced physician burnout. Further research is necessary to examine longer-term sustainability of such interventions.
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Research has shown that communication workshops with simulations, role-plays, interactive practices, discussions, feedbacks, or self-debrief may be more useful in improving skills and reducing burnout than traditional lecture-based teaching.
“Research has shown that communication workshops with simulations of real-life clinical situations through role-plays, interactive practices, discussions, feedbacks, or self-debrief may be more useful in improving skills [5,22] and reducing burnout in HCP than traditional lecture-based teaching [2,14].”
From The efficacy of applying the Interpersonal Effectiveness skills of dialectical behavior therapy into communication skills workshop for clinical nurses (2023) · cites this paper as [5]
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“This finding is consistent with previous studies which showed improvement in self-efficacy after communication skills training programs [5,36], but no significant changes were found in the level of burnout [6].”
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- Authors
- Boissy, A., Windover, A. K., Bokar, D., Karafa, M., Neuendorf, K., Frankel, R. M., Merlino, J., & Rothberg, M. B.
- Affiliations
- Cleveland Clinic (US)
- Press Ganey (US)
- Corresponding author
- Boissy, Adrienne
- Venue
- Journal of General Internal Medicine
- Published
- 2016-02-26
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 755-761
- ISSN
- 0884-8734 (ISSN-L)
- 1525-1497
- PMC
- PMC4907940
- OpenAlex
- W2280048680
- Cited by
- 561
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 48 · 2025: 60 · 2024: 66 · 2023: 64 · 2022: 62 · 2021: 64 · 2020: 62 · 2019: 59 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 28 · 2016: 10
- FWCI
- 82.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of General Internal Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare
- Keywords
- patient satisfaction, relationship-centered care, empathy, physician burnout, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, personal accomplishment, self-efficacy, HCAHPS, physician-patient communication
- MeSH terms
- Academic Medical Centers, Burnout, Professional, Communication, Empathy, Female, Humans, Inservice Training, Male, Physician-Patient Relations, Physicians, Case-Control Studies, Patient Satisfaction, Self Efficacy
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