Recruiting

Communication Skills

Sponsor:

Heather Ballard

Code:

NCT05979090

Conditions

Communication Research

Communication, Personal

Burnout, Professional

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 20 - 60

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Mastery learning in communication skills

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this study is to determine whether mastery learning in communication skills can improve skills in a simulated environment and have translational improvements in outcomes. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Does mastery learning improve skills in the simulation laboratory? 2. Does mastery learning improve clinical skills as seen by milestone performance? and 3 Does mastery learning improve burnout levels? The study is a multi-institutional randomized controlled trial of anesthesiology residents from five different residency programs. Participants will be randomized to mastery training in communication skills and standard of care, which is vicarious learning. Researchers will compare these two groups to see if mastery learning improves skills and translational outcomes.

Conditions

Communication Research

Communication, Personal

Burnout, Professional

Study ID

NCT05979090

Start date

Jan 18, 2023

Status verified date

Jul, 2026

Completion date

Jan 1, 2030

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jan 1, 2028

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 20 - 60

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Anesthesiology residents rotating at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Participant refusal
  • Study participants who have already undergone the mastery learning in difficult conversations course.

Study Design

Enrollment

80 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Other

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Mastery Learning Group

no intervention: Standard of Care Group

Interventions

Mastery learning in communication skills

Participants will undergo simulation-based mastery learning curriculum in difficult conversations.

Primary outcome measure

  • Communication skills [ Time Frame: one year ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Locations

Northwestern University Simulation Center

Recruiting

Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611

Contacts

Principal Investigator:

Heather Ballard, MD

More Information

Sponsor

Heather Ballard

Last update posted

Jul 10, 2026

Last verified

Jul, 2026

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Heather Ballard on 2026-07-10.