Clinical Research Directory

Patient Perception of Physician's Compassion, Communication Skills, and Professionalism During Clinic Visits: a Randomized Controlled Trial (EHR Study #3)

To learn about how patients view a doctor's compassion, communication skills, and professionalism based on whether the doctor uses the Electronic Health Record (EHR) during a visit with a patient.

Communication for Early Mobilisation of People Living With Dementia Following Surgery for Hip Fracture

This goal of this study is to identify ways that healthcare professionals communicate that are effective in helping a person living with dementia to stand or walk after surgery for a broken hip (hip fracture). We aim to identify 'what works' in successfully helping people with dementia to mobilise early, and share this in practice. The main question the research aims to answer is: What healthcare professional communication practices are effective in achieving early and continued mobilisation among people living with dementia following hip fracture surgery? We will use a research method called 'Conversation Analysis', to look at the fine detail of the language healthcare professionals use and responses to it. We will make video recordings of real-life ward care, when healthcare staff are trying to help a person with dementia get up early after hip fracture surgery. We will involve people with dementia in decisions to take part and get agreement from their families before we record anything. We have done this successfully in two previous studies. We will record up to 50 episodes of care on three trauma orthopaedic wards. We will identify specific, practical recommendations and 'teachable' approaches: ways of speaking, or sequences of requests or instructions. We will work with people with dementia, family carers, educators and clinicians to do this. We will use clips of videos in future communication training.

AI-Powered OSCE Coaching in Improving Infertility Counseling Skills in Nursing Students

This randomized controlled experimental study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a generative artificial intelligence-based "OSCE Coach" in improving infertility counseling communication and empathy skills among nursing students. The study will be conducted with undergraduate nursing students at Bartın University Faculty of Health Sciences and follows a two-group pretest-posttest design. A total of 96 students will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group or the control group using computer-generated randomization. The intervention group will participate in an AI-powered OSCE coaching simulation consisting of 6-8 infertility counseling micro-scenarios, incorporating structured feedback and deliberate practice cycles. The control group will receive conventional infertility counseling education using standard teaching methods. Outcomes will be assessed using the Therapeutic Communication Skills Scale for Nursing Students, the Jefferson Scale of Empathy for Nursing Students, and a rubric-based infertility counseling communication performance assessment based on the Kalamazoo Consensus Statement. Performance evaluations will be conducted via standardized virtual patient interviews and scored by two blinded independent raters. Data will be analyzed using ANCOVA to assess intervention effects while controlling for baseline scores. This study aims to contribute evidence on the effectiveness of AI-supported OSCE coaching in enhancing communication and empathy skills in nursing education.

AI-Supported Empathy Mapping to Enhance Communication and Grit in Pediatric Nursing Students

The nurse-patient communication environment in pediatric care is characterized by high uncertainty and complexity. Due to children's limited language development and emotional regulation abilities, coupled with parents' high level of involvement, nursing students often experience anxiety, lack of confidence, and avoidance behaviors, which negatively affect their clinical learning outcomes and the establishment of therapeutic relationships. Therefore, providing effective communication support strategies is essential in pediatric nursing education. This study aims to implement an instructional scaffolding model using artificial intelligence (AI)-generated empathy maps to enhance the communication skills, empathy performance, and grit of nursing students during pediatric clinical practicums when encountering communication challenges. A mixed-methods research design was adopted, and the participants were third-year nursing students enrolled in a pediatric nursing practicum course. The teaching intervention included AI-assisted generation of age-appropriate communication strategies, the construction of a grit-oriented empathy map, small group scenario-based exercises, and the application of learned strategies in clinical settings. Quantitative data were collected using pre- and post-intervention assessments, including an empathy scale, a communication skills scale, and a grit scale, to evaluate changes in learning outcomes. Qualitative data, including reflective journals, clinical observations, and focus group interviews, were analyzed to explore students' learning processes and strategy adaptations. Triangulation was applied to strengthen the validity of the findings. It is anticipated that this teaching model will enhance students' understanding of pediatric patients' emotional needs, strengthen their communication strategy application and clinical interaction quality, and promote persistence and adaptability in challenging situations. Through evidence-based teaching practice, this study is expected to provide a feasible and scalable innovative instructional model that supports the effective integration of AI into clinical nursing education, thereby improving pediatric nursing competence and the quality of care for children.

Mobilization of Emotions and Empathy During Communication Training in Nursing Students

Effective communication in healthcare is vital for patient satisfaction, safety, outcomes, and ethical practice, supporting shared decision-making and informed consent. Simulation-based training is widely used to strengthen communication skills and foster empathy through emotionally engaging experiences. This is a pilot study aimed (1) to assess changes in emotional state and empathy in nursing students after a simulation-based workshop (SBW) on delivering bad news, and (2) to evaluate the sensitivity of standardized scales in detecting these changes.

Empathy Training and Its Effect on Maternity Nurses' Communication Skills

The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of empathy skills training on Maternity Nurses' Communication and Parturient Women's Perception of Empathetic Care. The main questions it aims to answer are; * Do maternity nurses who received empathy skills training have better empathetic communication skills when caring with parturient women than those who don't.? * Do parturient women who received care from maternity nurses trained with empathy skills training perceive higher empathy level than mothers who received care from untrained nurses? Participants will: * Have 3 educational training sessions on empathy communication skills. * Will be followed by the researcher for any clarifications about the educational content of session * nurses will be asked to evaluate their empathy communication skills twice (once before training and second time after training) . also parturient women will be asked to assess their maternity nurses' empathy care level twice (once before training and second time after training).

Emotional Awareness and Communication Training Effectiveness in Oncology Nurses

This interventional clinical study aims to evaluate whether a structured emotional awareness and communication training program can reduce occupational burnout among oncology nurses. The study will address the following primary questions: Does the intervention lead to a significant increase in nurses' emotional awareness? Does it improve their communication skills in challenging patient and family interactions? Does it reduce their levels of professional burnout? Participants will be recruited from oncology nurses working at Ankara Etlik City Hospital who have been employed in the unit for at least six months and consent to participate. A total of 64 nurses will be randomly assigned to an intervention group (n=32), receiving four weekly face-to-face training sessions over four weeks, or a control group (n=32), receiving educational materials in written/digital format. Data will be collected using pre- and post-intervention assessments with the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Emotional Requirements Scale, and the Communication Skills Scale for Healthcare Professionals. All data will be anonymized and analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the intervention in enhancing emotional awareness and communication skills and in reducing burnout among oncology nurses.

Importance of the Type of Communication Used During Paraapical Anesthesia in Dentistry

Can we improve our communication to provide better care for our patients? In the healthcare field, the patient's experience is closely linked to pain management. The dental profession often requires simple but invasive procedures, such as local anaesthetics for example, which are providers of discomfort and anxietý that cannot be ignored. Fear of the dentist or dental care is a widespread phenomenon in the general population, since dental anxiety is estimated to affect 36% of the population, and 12% are thought to suffer from extreme fear. Clinicians traditionally warn patients of pain before para-apical anesthesia. This is not surprising, since even today, during initial training for practitioners, patients are taught to be informed, or even warned, of the pain to come, for ethical reasons (i.e., not to lie to the patient) and "so that he/she can prepare for it" (what we will refer to in the remainder of this protocol as classic communication). In the same way as when the patient has acute or induced pain, as is the case here (pain induced by the anesthetic injection), the practitioner also learns to ask if the patient is in pain, and how much. However, the use of pain-related words or a focus on pain can lead to significant anxiety, which in turn lowers the pain threshold. Conversely, the use of positive communication is important, as it can improve the patient's perception of pain and subjective experience. There is a body of literature on the impact of hypnotic communication on pain during painful treatment, but in fields other than dentistry (e.g. venous voice placement - Fusco 2020). To our knowledge, there is no scientific basis on the impact of the type of communication on patient pain in the field of dentistry. If, as we assume, we do indeed find similar results in other fields of medicine, this basis could serve as a basis for modifying the teaching and hence the practice of our young practitioners. We aim to compare the effects of two types of communication (hypnotic and conventional) on patients' pain, comfort and anxiety during para-apical anesthesia in dentistry. Anxiety and comfort were assessed prior to anesthesia on a numerical scale ranging from 0 (no anxiety or comfort) to 10 (greatest imaginable anxiety or comfort). This assessment of anxiety and comfort is asked again after anesthesia has been performed, as well as the pain experienced during anesthesia.

Use of Artificial Intelligence to Assess Trainee Communication Compared to Human Assessment

This study will evaluate whether a web-based artificial intelligence platform (AI) (Clinical Mind AI \[CMAI\] Stanford, CA), can assess communication skills in anesthesiology trainees, including residents and fellows, in the setting of disclosing medical errors. All participants will participate in an AI-generated simulation by using the platform remotely, and CMAI will assess trainee performance immediately after the simulation.