A research coding method to evaluate medical clinicians conduct of behavioral health care in patients with unexplained symptoms

A scoping review of emotions and related constructs in simulation-based education research articles

BACKGROUND

While acknowledgement of emotions' importance in simulation-based education is emerging, there are concerns regarding how education researchers understand the concept of emotions for them to deliberately incorporate emotionally charged scenarios into simulation-based education. This concern is highlighted especially in the context of medical education often lacking strong theoretical integration. To map out how current simulation-based education literature conceptualises emotion, we conducted a scoping review on how emotions and closely related constructs (e.g. stress, and emotional intelligence) are conceptualised in simulation-based education articles that feature medical students, residents, and fellows.

METHODS

The scoping review was based on articles published in the last decade identified through database searches (EMBASE and Medline) and hand-searched articles. Data extraction included the constructs featured in the articles, their definitions, instruments used, and the types of emotions captured. Only empirical articles were included (e.g. no review or opinion articles). Data were charted via descriptive analyses.

RESULTS

A total of 141 articles were reviewed. Stress was featured in 88 of the articles, while emotions and emotional intelligence were highlighted in 45 and 34 articles respectively. Conceptualisations of emotions lacked integration of theory. Measurements of emotions mostly relied on self-reports while stress was often measured via physiological and self-report measurements. Negative emotions such as anxiety were sometimes seen as interchangeable with the term stress. No inferences were made about specific emotions of participants from their emotional intelligence.

CONCLUSIONS

Our scoping review illustrates that learners in simulation-based education are most often anxious and fearful. However, this is partially due to medical education prioritising measuring negative emotions. Further theoretical integration when examining emotions and stress may help broaden the scope towards other kinds of emotions and better conceptualisations of their impact. We call for simulation education researchers to reflect on how they understand emotions, and whether their understanding may neglect any specific aspect of affective experiences their simulation participants may have.

Education on medically unexplained symptoms: a systematic review with a focus on cultural diversity and migrants

BACKGROUND

Health care providers often struggle with the management of patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), especially in case of a different ethnicity and/or cultural background. These challenges are insufficiently addressed in their training.

OBJECTIVES

A systematic review on education in the field of MUS in a diverse context to improve MUS healthcare provider-patient interaction focused on intercultural communication.

METHODS

Screening of PubMed, Web of Science, Cinahl and Cochrane Library on the keywords 'Medical unexplained (physical) symptoms (MUS)', 'Somatoform disorder', 'Functional syndrome', 'Diversity', 'Migrants', 'Ethnicity', 'Care models', 'Medical education', 'Communication skills', 'Health literacy'.

RESULTS

MUS patients, especially with a different ethnic background, often feel not understood or neglected. Health care providers experience feelings of helplessness, which may provoke medical shopping and resource consumption. Attitudes and perceptions from undergraduate trainees to senior physicians tend to be negative, impacting on the quality of the patient/health care provider relationship and subsequently on health outcomes, patient satisfaction and therapeutic adherence. Current undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education and training does not prepare health care providers for diagnosing and managing MUS patients in a diverse context. A continuum of training is necessary to achieve a long term and lasting change in attitudes towards these patients and trainers play a key role in this process. Hence, education should pay attention to MUS, requiring a specific competency profile and training, taken into account the variety in patients' cultural backgrounds.

CONCLUSIONS

This systematic review identified significant gaps and shortcomings in education on MUS in a diverse context. These need to be addressed to improve outcomes.

Development and Testing of a Communication Intervention to Improve Chronic Pain Management in Primary Care: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

OBJECTIVES

Effective communication skills are essential for optimally managing chronic pain and opioids. This exploratory, sequential mixed methods study tested the effect of a novel framework designed to improve pain-related communication and outcomes.

METHODS

Study 1 developed a novel 5-step framework for helping primary care clinicians discuss chronic pain and opioids with patients. Study 2 pilot tested an intervention for teaching this framework using standardized patient instructors-actors trained to portray patients and provide immediate clinician feedback-deployed during regular clinic hours. Primary care physicians were randomized to receive either the intervention or pain management recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Primary outcomes were pain-related interference at 2 months and clinician use of targeted communication skills (coded from transcripts of audio-recorded visits); secondary outcomes were pain intensity at 2 months, clinician self-efficacy for communicating about chronic pain, patient experience, and clinician-reported visit difficulty.

RESULTS

We enrolled 47 primary care physicians from 2 academic teaching clinics and recorded visits with 48 patients taking opioids for chronic pain who had an appointment scheduled with an enrolled physician. The intervention was not associated with significant changes in primary or secondary outcomes other than clinician self-efficacy, which was significantly greater in the intervention group.

DISCUSSION

This study developed a novel framework and intervention for teaching clinician pain-related communications skills. Although the intervention showed promise, more intensive or multicomponent interventions may be needed to have a significant impact on clinicians' pain-related communication and pain outcomes.

Making the biopsychosocial model more scientific-its general and specific models

Some aver that the biopsychosocial (BPS) model is not fully scientific because it lacks a method to produce BPS information. To resolve this criticism, I propose that we think in terms of general and specific BPS models. What most understand to be the model is the general BPS model. It simply indicates that all patients be understood in biological, psychological, and social terms without specifying a method or sources of BPS information. Its fundamental function is to guide medicine away from the effete, 17^th century disease-only model in clinical care, teaching, and research. Considerable population-based research data also support its scientific status. Less well understood, but of greater relevance to the clinician, is the specific BPS model, which describes the BPS features unique to an individual patient. The specific model, however, requires an interviewing method to achieve this, the method critics believe lacking. In this article, I review how medical communication scholars have established a method to acquire individualized BPS data on each patient. Research identified the patient-centered interviewing (PCI) method to do this. After much progress over several decades, the field was able to test the PCI in several randomized controlled trials-and confirmed it to be evidence-based. Therefore, by definition, because the patient-centered interview defines the specific BPS model in each patient, the model itself is evidence-based. This means we now can, for the first time, identify a scientific BPS model for every individual patient. Joining this scientific support with much existing data for the general model, we now have a fully scientific BPS model.

Teaching residents mental health care

OBJECTIVE

We tested the hypothesis that trained medical faculty can train residents effectively in a mental health care model.

METHODS

After the authors trained medical faculty intensively for 15 months in primary care mental health, the newly trained faculty taught medical residents intensively. Residents were evaluated pre- and post-residency and compared to non-equivalent control residents in another city. Using ANOVA, the primary endpoint was residents' use of a mental health care model with simulated patients. Secondary endpoints were residents' skills using models for patient-centered interviewing and for informing and motivating patients.

RESULTS

For the mental health care model, there was a significant interaction between study site and time (F = 33.51, p < .001, Eta² = .34); mean pre-test and post-test control group scores were 8.15 and 8.79, respectively, compared to 7.44 and 15.0 for the intervention group. Findings were similarly positive for models of patient-centered interviewing and informing and motivating.

CONCLUSIONS

Training medical faculty to teach residents a mental health care model offers a new educational approach to the widespread problem of poor mental health care.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

While the models tested here can provide guidance in conducting mental health care, further evaluation of the train-the-trainer program for preparing residents is needed.