Training students from rehabilitation professions on communicating with patients with communication disorders.

Introduction FRAME, a mnemonic referring to a program for helping healthcare providers adapt patient-provider communication when working with patients with communication disorders, improves the knowledge, confidence, and communication skills of medical students for working with this population. However, the impact of the FRAME program for preparing students from the rehabilitation disciplines to work with patients with communication disorders is unknown. Objective To examine the effects of the FRAME program on the knowledge, confidence, and communication skills of students in physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), and prosthetics and orthotics (PO OT = 7; and P&O = 1) participated in the FRAME training. Interventions The FRAME program, delivered in a single, two-hour session teaches students communication skills to use with patients with various types of communication disorders. Main outcome measures A quiz of students' knowledge about communication disorders and a self-rating of confidence for interacting with this patient population were used. Speech-language pathology graduate clinicians rated students' use of communication strategies from each area of the FRAME training during interactions with standardized patients portraying aphasia and dysarthria. Student qualitative feedback were also collected. Results Students' knowledge, confidence, and use of communication strategies improved significantly following training. Greatest gains were observed in students' ability to familiarize themselves with how a patient communicates and establish a method of communication before proceeding with the interview. Qualitative feedback aligned with these findings. Conclusions The FRAME program increases the knowledge, confidence, and use of communication strategies in rehabilitation students in order to communicate more effectively with patients with communication disorders in their future careers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.