Abstract
This paper describes the development and initial evaluation of a didactic curriculum to prepare research support staff with the core knowledge and skills required to collect patient-reported outcomes (PROs) via interviews. Research support staff members (N = 77) were recruited for eight separate workshops, each consisting of a didactic presentation followed by role-play scenarios with trained actors depicting common scenarios they may encounter as part of patient interaction. Trainees were observed and received feedback on their performance from trained facilitators and peers. In comparison to their pre-training assessment, trainees showed significant improvement in their confidence to conduct a research interview, handle a distressed participant, manage a wandering interview, ask participants sensitive questions, and handle irritated patients. Training research support staff in the effective collection of PROs via patient interviews can improve the confidence of these individuals in interacting with patients, which can ultimately lead to increased accuracy of data collection.
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Notes
The irritated patient scenario was not included in the first two training sessions.
The didactic presentation is available for use by request from the authors.
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Acknowledgments
This project was supported by a National Institutes of Health Support Grant (P30-CA-008748) and a National Cancer Institute Career Award (K07 CA109236). We wish to acknowledge the efforts of Enid Zuckerman toward contributing to the didactic material on elderly patients, as well as the MSKCC research support staff that participated in the brief video demonstrations.
Conflict of Interest
There are no financial relationships associated with these results that may reflect a conflict of interest or be perceived to reflect a conflict of interest.
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Atkinson, T.M., Hurley, K., Bylund, C.L. et al. Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Training Workshop for the Collection of Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) Interview Data by Research Support Staff. J Canc Educ 28, 33–37 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-012-0427-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-012-0427-z