Pediatric Cancer
Conditions
Keywords
Pediatric Cancer, Communication
Brief summary
This study focuses on improving interprofessional communication during cancer treatment, through an individual and hospital system intervention, to improve provider outcomes, patient care, and, ultimately, survival for children with cancer in low-resource settings.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALMulti-level communication intervention
The intervention will target multiple levels (provider, unit, hospital) and will respond to identified modifiable communication challenges. Aim 2 intervention mapping will finalize the specific intervention; we anticipate it will involve training and education of staff members and new unit protocols for communication.
Sponsors
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Washington University School of Medicine
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
Parallel-arm, pilot cluster-randomized wait list-controlled trial to evaluate the intervention compared to control
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Hospitals identified as being in lowest quartile of communication quality, as defined by prior cross-sectional CritCom analysis and measured as the overall CritCom score. * All Global Alliance hospitals providing childhood cancer care will be eligible to participate. * Individual participants will be included if they care for hospitalized children with cancer at risk of deterioration.
Exclusion criteria
* None
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Communication quality - CritCom Measure | We will evaluate outcomes at three time points; baseline, one month after intervention, and six months after intervention. | Reliable, published measure of communication quality; measured across 6 domains on a Likert scale; self reported by clinical team members; Will assess change in clinician perspective of communication quality within 6 months |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Provider burnout and retention | We will evaluate outcomes at three time points; baseline, one month after intervention, and six months after intervention. | Provider outcomes will be assessed at the individual level via questions about burnout and intent to leave. This will use pre-existing, reliable measures where individuals report their self-reported rates of burnout and intent to leave their job. These are categorical responses. |
| Patient mortality and safety/adverse events | We will evaluate outcomes at three time points; baseline, one month after intervention, and six months after intervention. | Patient outcomes data will be collected via prospective registry of all clinical deterioration events, defined as unplanned transfers to intensive care (ICU), the use of ICU interventions on general wards, or unplanned death on the ward. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
Primary ContactSara Malone, LCSW, PhD
Outcome results
None listed