None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This study is trialing the Teachback method to improve service delivery and health communication for the government funded telephone parenting service (Pregnancy, Birth & Baby Helpline, Healthdirect Australia). The primary outcome is assessing the effectiveness of Teachback compared with the usual care delivered through the PBB Helpline on a range of topics, testing chiefly if knowledge, understanding and satisfaction has increased by the Teachback intervention. This is a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial in which all nurses will be invited to participate in the study and will cross over to the intervention according to a training schedule. Both nurses and callers to the PBB Helpline are participants and Teachback will be evaluated by both interviewing callers and feedback from the nurses. Callers to the PBB Helpline will be interviewed one week after their initial call by an independent organisation. Nurses will be asked to reflect on their communication during their calls by completing a short survey throughout their shift. Nurses will also be invited to provide further feedback about the study through qualitative interviews/focus groups.
Interventions
This trial is to test the effectiveness of a communication technique Teachback - which is for checking and ensuring understanding in a non-shaming way and involves asking a person to explain in their own words what they need to know. Teachback will be used by nurses staffing the Pregnancy, Birth & Baby Helpline (PBB) – a government funded telephone parenting service (Healthdirect Australia). Implementation of this method is to improve service delivery and health communication for the PBB Helplin
This trial is to test the effectiveness of a communication technique Teachback - which is for checking and ensuring understanding in a non-shaming way and involves asking a person to explain in their own words what they need to know. Teachback will be used by nurses staffing the Pregnancy, Birth & Baby Helpline (PBB) – a government funded telephone parenting service (Healthdirect Australia). Implementation of this method is to improve service delivery and health communication for the PBB Helpline. This is a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial in which all nurses will be invited to participate in the study and will cross over to the intervention according to a training schedule. The duration of the study period is 6 weeks, with nurses randomised to receive the training at 2 weeks or 4 weeks. Each group of nurses will attend a single two-hour face-to-face training session according to the study schedule. This will take place on site at the call centre and will be delivered by an experienced trainer who has led a previous study on Teachback and has expertise in running Teachback training sessions. Sessions will be co-facilitated by a researcher closely involved with study design, and will be attended by the manager, supervisor, and clinical trainer of the telephone service. The training schedule will include: - Background evidence for Teachback. - How to do Teachback and examples of phrases. - Videos with Teachback in different contexts. - Interactive activities that include role plays and scenarios. In addition, flyers about the study will be placed around the call centre to promote the study and training sessions to nurses. Reminder emails about the use of Teachback and helpful strategies will be sent to participating nurses intermittently. Both nurses and callers to the PBB Helpline are participants and the intervention will be evaluated by both interviewing callers and feedback from the nurses. Callers to the PBB Helpline will be interviewed one week after their initial call by an independent organisation. Nurses will be asked to reflect on their communication during their calls by completing a short survey during their shift.
Sponsors
School of Public Health, The University of Sydney
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Crossover
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
16 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
People will be eligible to participate in the study if they at least 16 years of age and are fluent in English. Participants may be from a range of socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. Nurses staffing the PBB Helpline will be invited to participate in the study. Nurses who are unable to complete training in teachback will be excluded.
Exclusion criteria
Participants will be excluded from the study if they are unable to speak adequate English as we do not have access to interpreting services for the study. Individuals whose call requires transfer to nurse triage for an emergency, a counsellor for psychological support or translator will not be invited to participate. Callers on sensitive topics (e.g. termination, miscarriage) are excluded and calls that are less than 4 minutes duration.
Outcome results
None listed