• Online Features  This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (11)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Medical Practice  • Medical Education  • Patient-Physician Relationship/ Care  • Patient-Physician Communication  • Pediatrics  • Neonatology and Infant Care  • Quality of Care  • Quality of Care, Other  • Genetics  • Genetic Counseling/ Testing/ Therapy  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Michael H. Farrell, MD; Pramita Kuruvilla, MD

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162(3):199-204.

Objective  To investigate pediatric residents' efforts to assess understanding in discussions about positive newborn screening test results. Newborn screening saves lives, but confusion about false-positive and carrier results often leads to psychosocial problems.

Design  Explicit-criteria abstraction of transcripts of encounters with standardized parents of a fictitious infant found to carry cystic fibrosis or sickle cell hemoglobinopathy.

Setting  Simulated doctor-patient encounter.

Participants  Pediatric residents participating in an educational workshop on how to inform parents about positive newborn screening test results.

Main Outcome Measures  Abstraction used an explicit-criteria data dictionary with definitions for 5 different ways to assess understanding. A "partial" designation was used for leading syntax or no pause for response.

Results  Interabstractor reliability over 59 transcripts (2 per resident) was  = 0.93. Only 26 of 59 transcripts (44.1%) met definite criteria for at least 1 assessment of understanding. Most assessments were the less effective close-ended (37.3% of transcripts) and "OK?" question types (32.2% of transcripts). Only 3 transcripts met definite criteria for an open-ended assessment and no transcripts included a request for a teach-back, the type thought to be most effective. Four transcripts (6.8%) included an advance request for questions. With partial-criteria assessments included, an additional 31 transcripts (52%) were identified.

Conclusions  The small number of assessments of understanding and the high fraction of less effective assessments do not bode well for parental understanding, especially for parents with limited health literacy. Training programs should address assessments of understanding, but quality improvement activities using these types of assessment methods may also be needed.

Author Affiliations: Center for Patient Care and Outcomes Research, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (Dr Farrell); and Contra Costa Family Practice Residency Program, Martinez, California (Dr Kuruvilla).

CiteULike    Connotea    Delicious    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLE

Misunderstanding About Communication
Lawrence S. Wissow and Lori Hamby Erby
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162(3):280-281.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Child Health Providers' Precautionary Discussion of Emotions During Communication About Results of Newborn Genetic Screening
Farrell et al.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2012;166:62-67.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Pediatricians and Health Literacy: Descriptive Results From a National Survey
Turner et al.
Pediatrics 2009;124:S299-S305.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Pediatric Fellows: Perspectives on Training and Future Scope of Practice
Freed et al.
Pediatrics 2009;123:S31-S37.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Pediatric Residents' Use of Jargon During Counseling About Newborn Genetic Screening Results
Farrell et al.
Pediatrics 2008;122:243-249.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Misunderstanding About Communication
Wissow and Erby
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2008;162:280-281.
FULL TEXT