Summaries of Must-Read Clinical Literature, Guidelines, and FDA Actions
COVID-19 experience forced residents to quickly improve patient communication skills
Key clinical point: While the spring peak of COVID-19 was traumatic for many trainees, the experience may have accelerated their patient communication skills regarding difficult goals-of-care discussions.
Major finding: Self-reported fluency and comfort with goals-of-care discussions increased from a mean of about 50 on a scale of 100 before the pandemic to more than 75 during the pandemic.
Study details: A survey of trainees (n = 94; 50 respondents) in a New York City internal medicine residency program during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Disclosures: The authors had no conflicts of interest to report.
Tobin-Schnittger P. CHEST 2020 Annual Meeting. Late-breaking abstract.