OBJECTIVE: To determine the utility of a novel Paediatric Consultation Assessment Tool (PCAT). DESIGN: Developed to measure clinicians' communication behaviour with children and their parents/guardian, PCAT was designed according to consensus guidelines and refined at a number of stages. Volunteer clinicians provided videotaped real consultations. Assessors were trained to score communication skills using PCAT, a novel rating scale. SETTING: Eight UK paediatric units. PARTICIPANTS: 19 paediatricians collected video-recorded material; a second cohort of 17 clinicians rated the videos. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Itemised and aggregated scores were analysed (means and 95% confidence intervals) to determine measurement characteristics and relationship to patient, consultation, clinician and assessor attributes; generalisability coefficient of aggregate score; factor analysis of items; comparison of scores between groups of patients, consultations, clinicians and assessors. RESULTS: 188 complete consultations were analysed (median per doctor = 10). 3 videos marked by any trained assessor are needed to reliably (r>0.8) assess a doctor's triadic consultation skills using PCAT, 4 to assess communication with just children or parents. Performance maps to two factors--"clinical skills" and "communication behaviour"; clinicians score more highly on the former (mean (SD) 95% CI 0.52 (0.075)). There were significant differences in scores for the same skills applied to parent and child, especially between the ages of 2 and 10 years, and for information-sharing rather than relationship-building skills (2-tailed significance <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The PCAT appears to be reliable, valid and feasible for the assessment of triadic consultation skills by direct observation.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the utility of a novel Paediatric Consultation Assessment Tool (PCAT). DESIGN: Developed to measure clinicians' communication behaviour with children and their parents/guardian, PCAT was designed according to consensus guidelines and refined at a number of stages. Volunteer clinicians provided videotaped real consultations. Assessors were trained to score communication skills using PCAT, a novel rating scale. SETTING: Eight UK paediatric units. PARTICIPANTS: 19 paediatricians collected video-recorded material; a second cohort of 17 clinicians rated the videos. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Itemised and aggregated scores were analysed (means and 95% confidence intervals) to determine measurement characteristics and relationship to patient, consultation, clinician and assessor attributes; generalisability coefficient of aggregate score; factor analysis of items; comparison of scores between groups of patients, consultations, clinicians and assessors. RESULTS: 188 complete consultations were analysed (median per doctor = 10). 3 videos marked by any trained assessor are needed to reliably (r>0.8) assess a doctor's triadic consultation skills using PCAT, 4 to assess communication with just children or parents. Performance maps to two factors--"clinical skills" and "communication behaviour"; clinicians score more highly on the former (mean (SD) 95% CI 0.52 (0.075)). There were significant differences in scores for the same skills applied to parent and child, especially between the ages of 2 and 10 years, and for information-sharing rather than relationship-building skills (2-tailed significance <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The PCAT appears to be reliable, valid and feasible for the assessment of triadic consultation skills by direct observation.
Authors: Vincent Gosselin Boucher; Simon Bacon; Brigitte Voisard; Anda I Dragomir; Claudia Gemme; Florent Larue; Sara Labbé; Geneviève Szczepanik; Kimberly Corace; Tavis Campbell; Michael Vallis; Gary Garber; Codie Rouleau; Jean G Diodati; Doreen Rabi; Serge Sultan; Kim Lavoie Journal: JMIR Med Educ Date: 2022-06-24
Authors: Jenni Burt; Gary Abel; Natasha Elmore; John Campbell; Martin Roland; John Benson; Jonathan Silverman Journal: BMJ Open Date: 2014-03-06 Impact factor: 2.692