RPD305 - Lasting Impact of Comprehensive Faculty Development in Pediatric Communication Training

Key Message : PedsTalk, a novel, longitudinal faculty development program combining intensive VitalTalk training with ongoing community support, achieved sustained 18-month improvements in teaching and personal communication skills. Findings suggest that addressing competence, motivation, and community through continuous engagement might mitigate the skill decay typically seen with one-time training interventions.

Abstract:

Background: Serious illness communication education is foundational to palliative care and requires motivated, skilled educators. However, limited work has been done on sustaining communication educator skills, and studies from procedural training show that clinicians can lose 50-80% of their skills within 6-12 months without ongoing practice (I,II).

Purpose: We hypothesized that comprehensive faculty development with ongoing community support and structured opportunities to utilize educator skills would achieve sustained improvements in teaching skills, communication competence, and motivation across subspecialties.

Approach: Our serious illness communication train-the-trainer program, PedsTalk, recruited 21 pediatric faculty from ten divisions to complete intensive 4-day VitalTalk Faculty Development training (III). Post-training supports included learning communities every 1-2 months, teaching opportunities, and mentored curriculum development. We assessed participants at baseline (retrospective pre-/immediate post-training), 6 months, and 18 months post-training using 5-point Likert scales, which were analyzed with Wilcoxon signed-rank tests.

Results: All 17 participants not involved in the research completed surveys (81% recruited; 100% eligible); 50% were at least 10 years into practice. On 5-point scales (1=poor/not motivated, 5=creative/very motivated), training produced immediate, significant improvements that were sustained after 18 months. Personal communication skills improved, including sharing information clearly (3.50, 4.07, 4.06; p< 0.001), recognizing emotions (3.57, 4.20, 4.35; p< 0.005), and exploring values (3.36, 4.00, 4.12; p< 0.005). Teaching skills improved for simulation-based teaching (2.18, 3.57, 3.76; p< 0.001) and bedside teaching (2.93, 3.60, 3.65; p< 0.05). Motivation increased for simulation (2.21, 4.00, 3.88; p< 0.001) and bedside (4.14, 4.67, 4.24; p< 0.01) teaching. All skills were retained without decline from post-training to 18 months (all p>0.05).

Implications: Faculty development programs can achieve sustained impact by combining intensive skill-building with ongoing community support and practice opportunities. Teaching serious illness communication concurrently improved educators' own clinical communication. This model demonstrates a scalable approach for building lasting institutional capacity for serious illness communication beyond palliative care specialists.

References: I. Lavecchia M, Myers J, Bainbridge D, et al. Education modalities for serious illness communication training: A scoping review on the impact on clinician behavior and patient outcomes. Palliat Med. 2023;38(2):170. doi:10.1177/02692163231186180
II. Smith KK, Gilcreast D, Pierce K. Evaluation of staff’s retention of ACLS and BLS skills. Resuscitation. 2008;78(1):59-65. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2008.02.007
III. Faculty Development - VitalTalk. August 26, 2025. Accessed October 13, 2025. https://vitaltalk.org/faculty-development/