Systematic review of communication trainings

The aim of this project was to provide recommendations on the structure, materials and outcomes that should be considered when developing communication training programs to improve the recruitment of patients in clinical trials. A systematic review of peer-reviewed articles was conducted and 22 studies were included. Several dimensions were analyzed, namely program design, content development, pedagogical tools, content of the program, and the outcomes affected. From the reviewed it was possible to see that training programs generally take the form of workshops and are developed by groups of heterogeneous experts. The training programs described in the articles reviewed adopt several educational materials and activities often developed ad hoc by the research team hosting the training. The outcome measures and assessment strategies were not consistent among the training programs, therefore it was not possible to statistically synthetize findings. However, results point to a number of recommendations for the development of future clinical research communication training programs. For example, training programs should be developed by a team of experts with a range of expertise and should be organized in the form of workshops. Participants should be able to role-play newly acquired communication skills using standardized patients.