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Anya Kaushik, BM; David D. Pothier, MBChB, MSc, MRCS, DOHNS

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We read with interest the recent work by Back et al¹ designing and evaluating the efficacy of Oncotalk, a new residential communication skills workshop. Indeed, discussing bad news remains a challenging area in everyday practice, since few of today's residents and fellows have received any formal communication skills training.²

Although the article by Back et al¹ showed a statistically significant increase in the number of bad news skills and transitional skills acquired, it does not necessarily prove that the course improves communication skills in a clinical context. Before the acquisition of a skills' set can be concluded to improve communication skills, the skills themselves need to be shown to be effective at improving the patient experience. It is easy to show that after you introduce new behaviors, people will use them more. This does not translate to effective change in . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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RELATED LETTER

Efficacy of Communication Skills Training for Giving Bad News and Discussing Transitions to Palliative Care
Anthony L. Back, Robert M. Arnold, Walter F. Baile, Kelly A. Fryer-Edwards, Stewart C. Alexander, Gwyn E. Barley, Ted A. Gooley, and James A. Tulsky
Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(5):453-460.
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