Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23819723›Full record

Trial reportBMC family practice2013

Effectiveness of the ACA (Availability, Current issues and Anticipation) training programme on GP-patient communication in palliative care; a controlled trial.

Willemjan Slort, Annette H Blankenstein, Bart P M Schweitzer, Dirk L Knol, Luc Deliens, Neil K Aaronson, Henriëtte E van der Horst

Open access · goldAbstract readClinical Trial
In one paragraph

Trial report in BMC family practice, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
1.6field-weighted citation impact, top 15% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Trial
  2. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Willemjan SlortDepartment of General Practice & Elderly Care Medicine, EMGO + Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. w.slort@vumc.nl
Annette H Blankenstein
Bart P M Schweitzer
Dirk L Knol
Luc Deliens
Neil K Aaronson
Henriëtte E van der Horst
EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research · NLAmsterdam UMC Location VUmc · NLThe Netherlands Cancer Institute · NL

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundCommunicating effectively with palliative care patients has been acknowledged to be somewhat difficult, but little is known about the effect that training general practitioners (GPs) in specific elements of communication in palliative care might have. We hypothesized that GPs exposed to a new training programme in GP-patient communication in palliative care focusing on availability of the GP for the patient, current issues the GP should discuss with the patient and anticipation by the GP of various scenarios (ACA), would discuss more issues and become more skilled in their communication with palliative care patients.

methodsIn this controlled trial among GPs who attended a two-year Palliative Care Peer Group Training Course in the Netherlands only intervention GPs received the ACA training programme. To evaluate the effect of the programme a content analysis (Roter Interaction Analysis System) was performed of one videotaped 15-minute consultation of each GP with a simulated palliative care patient conducted at baseline, and one at 12 months follow-up. Both how the GP communicated with the patient ('availability') and the number of current and anticipated issues the GP discussed with the patient were measured quantitatively. We used linear mixed models and logistic regression models to evaluate between-group differences over time.

resultsSixty-two GPs were assigned to the intervention and 64 to the control group. We found no effect of the ACA training programme on how the GPs communicated with the patient or on the number of issues discussed by GPs with the patient. The total number of issues discussed by the GPs was eight out of 13 before and after the training in both groups.

conclusionThe ACA training programme did not influence how the GPs communicated with the simulated palliative care patient or the number of issues discussed by the GPs in this trial. Further research should evaluate whether this training programme is effective for GPs who do not have a special interest in palliative care and whether studies using outcomes at patient level can provide more insight into the effectiveness of the ACA training programme.

trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN56722368.

Indexed as

CommunicationPhysician-Patient RelationsProgram EvaluationAdultChi-Square DistributionClinical CompetenceControl GroupsFamily PracticeFemaleGeneral PractitionersHumansMaleMiddle AgedNetherlandsPalliative CareProfessional Practice Location

Identifiers

PMID23819723
PMCPMC3734100
OpenAlexW2140128738

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.