Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) Education for Health Care Students: Assessment of a Training Program

Abstract

Introduction Interprofessional communication failures are estimated to be a factor in two-thirds of serious health care–related accidents. Using a standardized communication protocol during transfer of patient information between providers improves patient safety. An interprofessional education (IPE) event for first-year health professions students was designed using the Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) tool as a structured communication framework. IPE literature, including a valid measurement tool specifically tailored for SBAR, was utilized to design the Interprofessional Team Training Day (ITTD) and evaluate learner gains in SBAR skills. Methods Learners from six educational programs participated in ITTD, which consisted of didactics, small-group discussion, and role-play using the SBAR protocol. Individual learners were assessed using the SBAR Brief Assessment Rubric for Learner Assessment (SBAR-LA) on SBAR communication skills before and after the ITTD event. Learners received a written clinical vignette and submitted video recordings of themselves simulating the use of SBAR to communicate to another health care professional. Pre- and postrecordings were scored using the SBAR-LA rubric. Normalized gain scores were calculated to estimate the improvement attributable to ITTD. Results SBAR-LA scores increased for 60% of participants. For skills not demonstrated before the event, the average learner acquired 44% of those skills from ITTD. Learners demonstrated statistically significant increases for five of 10 SBAR-LA skills. Discussion The value to patient safety of utilizing structured communication between health care providers is proven; however, evaluating IPE teaching of communication skills effectiveness is challenging. Using SBAR-LA, communication skills were shown to improve following ITTD.

Keywords

• SBAR
• Communication Skills
• Interprofessional Education
• Program Evaluation
• Quality Improvement/Patient Safety