Twelve Years of the Italian Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills (PERCS)

Lidia Borghi, Elaine C. Meyer, Elena Vegni, Roberta Oteri, Paolo Almagioni and Giulia Lamiani
Additional contact information
Lidia Borghi: Department of Health Sciences, University of Milan, 20142 Milan, Italy
Elaine C. Meyer: Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Elena Vegni: Department of Health Sciences, University of Milan, 20142 Milan, Italy
Roberta Oteri: ASST Santi Paolo and Carlo Hospitals, 20142 Milan, Italy
Paolo Almagioni: Humanitas Research Hospital, 20089 Milan, Italy
Giulia Lamiani: Department of Health Sciences, University of Milan, 20142 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: To describe the experience of the Italian Program to Enhance Relations and Communication Skills (PERCS-Italy) for difficult healthcare conversations. PERCS-Italy has been offered in two different hospitals in Milan since 2008. Each workshop lasts 5 h, enrolls 10–15 interdisciplinary participants, and is organized around simulations and debriefing of two difficult conversations. Before and after the workshops, participants rate their preparation, communication, relational skills, confidence, and anxiety on 5-point Likert scales. Usefulness, quality, and recommendation of the program are also assessed. Descriptive statistics, t -tests, repeated-measures ANOVA, and Chi-square were performed. A total of 72 workshops have been offered, involving 830 interdisciplinary participants. Participants reported improvements in all the dimensions ( p < 0.001) without differences across the two hospitals. Nurses and other professionals reported a greater improvement in preparation, communication skills, and confidence, compared to physicians and psychosocial professionals. Usefulness, quality, and recommendation of PERCS programs were highly rated, without differences by discipline. PERCS-Italy proved to be adaptable to different hospital settings, public and private. After the workshops, clinicians reported improvements in self-reported competencies when facing difficult conversations. PERCS-Italy’s sustainability is based on the flexible format combined with a solid learner-centered approach. Future directions include implementation of booster sessions to maintain learning and the assessment of behavioral changes.

Keywords: bad news; clinical psychology; healthcare communication; continuing medical education; difficult conversations; post-graduate training (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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