Background: Standardised patient simulations seem to be useful for improving the communication skills of health sciences students. However, it is important to define the effectiveness of these types of interventions in complex scenarios linked to disease chronicity and end-of-life contexts. Methods: A quasi-experimental study with pre- and post-intervention measures was carried out in a single group. A total of 161 nursing students completed different assessment instruments to measure their attitudes towards communication (Attitude Toward Communication Scale), self-efficacy (Self-Efficacy of Communication Skills, SE-12), and communication skills (Health Professionals Communication Skills Scale, EHC-PS) before and after simulation training with standardised patients. The objective of the program was to train students in non-technical skills for complex situations involving chronicity and end-of-life care. It comprised eight sessions lasting 2.5 h each. Results: The results showed notable baseline gender differences in attitudes towards communication and in the informative communication dimension, with women obtaining higher scores. The participants’ self-efficacy and communication skills significantly improved after completing the intervention, with no significant differences being found for the attitudes towards communication variable. Conclusion: The standardised patient simulation programme for complex scenarios related to chronicity and end-of-life contexts improved communication self-efficacy and communication skills in these nursing students. In future work it will be important to analyse the influence of gender and attitudes towards communication as variables in the learning of communication skills in nursing students.

Background: During the transfer of patients, both ambulance and hospital emergency service professionals need to exchange necessary, precise, and complete information for an effective handover. Some factors threaten a quality handover such as excessive caseload, patients with multiple comorbidities, limited past medical history, and frequent interruptions.Purpose: To explore the viewpoint of nurses on their experience of patient handovers, describing the essential aspects of the process and areas for improvement, and establishing standardized elements for an effective handover.Methods: A qualitative research method was used.Results: Nurses identified the need to standardize the patient transfer process by a written record to support the verbal handover and to transmit patient information adequately, in a timely manner, and in a space free of interruptions, in order to increase patient safety.Conclusions: An organized method does not exist. The quality of handovers could be enhanced by improvements in communication and standardizing the process.

Background: Quality clinical care is supported by effective patient-centered communication. Health care professionals can improve their communication skills through simulation-based training, but our knowledge about virtual simulation and its effectiveness and use in training health professionals and students is still growing rapidly. Objective: The objective of this study was to review the current academic literature to identify and evaluate the virtual simulation tools used to train communication skills in health care students and professionals. Methods: This review was carried out in June 2023 by collecting data from the MEDLINE/PubMed and Web of Science electronic databases. Once applicable studies were identified, we recorded data related to type of technology used, learning objectives, degree of learning autonomy, outcomes, and other details. Results: We found 35 articles that had developed and/or applied a virtual environment for training communication skills aimed at patients, in which 24 different learning tools were identified. Most had been developed to independently train communication skills in English, either generally or in the specific context of medical history (anamnesis) interviews. Many of these tools used a virtual patient that looked like a person and had the ability to vocally respond. Almost half of the tools analyzed allowed the person being trained to respond orally using natural language. Of note, not all these studies described the technology they had used in detail. Conclusions: Many different learning tools with very heterogeneous characteristics are being used for the purposes of communication skills training. Continued research will still be required to develop virtual tools that include the most advanced features to achieve high-fidelity simulation training.

In recent years, the importance of training healthcare professionals in nontechnical skills using effective methodologies has been increasingly recognised as a means of preventing clinical errors in the practice of health care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions on nontechnical skills in the emergency medical services and/or critical care unit settings. A systematic search was carried out in the PubMed, SCOPUS, CINAHL, and Web of Science databases according to predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. After the initial search, 7952 records were selected after duplicates removed. Finally, a selection of 38 studies was included for quantitative analysis. Separate meta-analyses of standardised mean changes were carried out for each outcome measure assuming a random-effects model. Cochran's Q-statistic and I² index were applied to verify study heterogeneity. Weighted analyses of variance and meta-regressions were conducted to test the influence of potential moderators and funnel plots using Duval and Tweedie's trim-and-fill method, and Egger's regression test were used to examine publication bias. All the variables analysed had a significant effect size, with the exception of situational awareness (d₊ = -0.448; 95% confidence interval [CI] = -1.034, 0.139). The highest mean effect size was found for knowledge (d₊ = -0.925; 95% CI = -1.177, -0.673), followed by the mean effect sizes for global nontechnical skills (d₊ = -0.642; 95% CI = -0.849, -0.434), team nontechnical skills (d₊ = -0.606; 95% CI = -0.949, -0.262), and leadership nontechnical skills (d₊ = -0.571; 95% CI = -0.877, -0.264). Similar mean effect sizes were found for attitude (d₊ = -0.406; 95% CI = -0.769, -0.044), self-efficacy (d₊ = -0.469; 95% CI = -0.874, -0.064), and communication nontechnical skills (d₊ = -0.458; 95% CI = -0.818, -0.099). Large heterogeneity among the standardised mean changes was found in the meta-analyses (I² > 75% and p < .001), except for self-efficacy where I² = 58.17%, and there was a nonstatistical result for Cochran's Q. This great variability is also reflected in the forest plots. The use of simulation interventions to train emergency and critical care healthcare professionals in nontechnical skills significantly improves levels of knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, and nontechnical skills performance.