New Research Explores Preparing Medical Students to Deliver Difficult News
VitalTalk training prepares physicians to make the moment of diagnosis a time of immediate support for patients who feel like they have none.
Providers often see patients during some of their most challenging days. Unfortunately, that may mean delivering bad news. Difficult conversations usually come in the form of a diagnosis:
- You have stage 4 cancer.
- You have untreatable congestive heart failure.
- Your mother has Alzheimer’s.
While this is part of medicine, most medical school curricula do not fully address these challenges. As a result, graduates must “learn as they go," which can be stressful for the provider and the patient. When a physician must deliver serious information about a patient’s diagnosis, it is critical to the skills to foster support and understanding throughout the conversation.
Research led by Carilion principal investigator and palliative nurse specialist Phyllis Whitehead, Ph.D., and Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (VTCSOM) student Erika Coleman explores incorporating VitalTalk training as part of medical education. VitalTalk is a nonprofit organization that provides clinicians with training modules and resources to structure conversations with patients and families facing a serious illness. The goal of the research is to examine whether an earlier introduction to VitalTalk training during medical school better prepares physicians to make the moment of diagnosis a time for immediate support for patients who may feel like they have none.
“There may be an opportunity to transform the future of patient care and to create a new normal in the way serious medical information is delivered to patients,” said Whitehead.
The results of this study could spark changes to the VTCSOM palliative care curriculum and could extend to other medical schools as well.
“We're so excited for this project because this type of student-led research is critical in trying to move advanced illness communication skills earlier into medical education," said Brian Unwin, M.D., Carilion section chief for Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. “This type of training promotes better communication skills in all providers.”
This research will lay the groundwork for continued advancement in medical education.