COMFORT: Evaluating a New Communication Curriculum With Nurse Leaders

Goldsmith, Joy; Wittenberg-Lyles, Elaine

doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2012.05.017

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…COMFORT has shown to improve clinician self-efficacy, attitudes toward communication, and reduce providers’ apprehension about communication. 18–20 Subsequent research with the curriculum has shown improvement in nurses’ attitudes, comfort levels, and perceived self-efficacy regarding palliative care conversations 21 and improvements in nurse-perceived confidence in initiating difficult communication topics with family caregivers. 22 Highlighted below are summaries of the four most popular modules of the curriculum (modules C, O, M, R), derived from a culmination of a review of the literature, efficacy research, concepts grounded in communication theory, and feedback from nationwide nursing audiences and expert clinical faculty.…”

Section: Comfort Communication Curriculummentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating with Patients and Families Around Difficult Topics in Cancer Care Using the COMFORT Communication Curriculum

Wittenberg¹,

Reb²,

Kanter³

2018

Seminars in Oncology Nursing

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Section: Comfort Communication Curriculummentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating with Patients and Families Around Difficult Topics in Cancer Care Using the COMFORT Communication Curriculum

Wittenberg¹,

Reb²,

Kanter³

2018

Seminars in Oncology Nursing

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“…The COMFORT framework was originally designed to provide communication skill-building instruction for nurse practitioners in a 7 Palliative setting under the umbrella of BPS and PCC by using it concurrently and reflectively in the care of patients [42,43]. The effectiveness of this model lies mostly in holding up the allowance of time and opportunity for questions, clarifications and enabling an ongoing dialogue to resolve challenges and reiterateinformation by following the seven holistic principles (See Table 1 Hence, the COMFORT model is the object of study in order to evaluate if it has the potential for changing communication behaviours by raising awareness in physiotherapists about their own communication practices and key considerations to tackle while BBN [30,42].…”

Section: The Comfort Communication Curriculummentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the COMFORT Model for Complex Communication for Physiotherapists in Neurorehabilitation: A Critical Review

2017

Medical &Amp; Clinical Research

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Literature has evaluated the level of accomplishment of the Patient-centred care (PCC) model from physiotherapists working in Neurorehabilitation. Reviewing the literature has revealed a lack of kills, confidence and training by physiotherapists to communicate difficult or complex information, such as poor prognosis or shared goal- setting, leading patients and families to complain about the need for more empathy, encouragement for patients to foster autonomy and rapport with physiotherapists. This problem is not unique to physiotherapists in neurorehabilitation and can be found in other medical disciplines. Many frameworks have been designed in order to teach how to successfully lead communication in stressful situations. However, the COMFORT model, which is an acronym for seven key principles of effective communication, is a grounded framework based on PCC ideals. This study aims to review the evidence of the effectiveness of the COMFORT model used by other health care professionals (HCPs) to implement it for physiotherapists in neurorehabilitation to explore patients' multifactorial lives, break bad news (BBN) effectively, and manage the emotional labour implied in complex scenarios such as discharging or setting treatment goals. Numerous databases were electronically searched and through a critical realist approach, six studies that applied this communication framework in different medical specialities have been reviewed. Through the scope of the self-efficacy theory, the COMFORT model can be considered a suitable communication framework to be used by physiotherapists due to increasing their confidence, teaching how to approach the emotional dimension implied in neurorehabilitation and having the potential to change clinical practice. Recommendations are to conduct studies on physiotherapists working in Neurorehabilitation in order to display the effectiveness of the COMFORT curriculum but also, to design specific communication frameworks tailored for physiotherapists working in a challenging setting as neurorehabilitation.

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“…COMFORT© training has been found to be effective in acute care and oncology settings, primarily with nurses, nursing students, and physical therapists. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] COMFORT© training has not been tested in the HH setting, but Tay et al 21 recommended that agencies employ the COMFORT© model in HH based on their findings of emotional expression about decisional, relational, and existential topics among HH patients and families engaged in advance care planning (ACP) conversations. 21 Home health staff attempt to provide rehabilitation-focused care, which may seem nonbeneficial at various stages in some patients' disease trajectories.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Palliative Care Communication Among Home Health Interprofessional Staff: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Effectiveness

Bigger

Zanville

Wittenberg

et al. 2023

Am J Hosp Palliat Care

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Skilled home health care (HH) is the largest and fastest growing long-term care setting in the United States. Patients in HH are served by an interprofessional team, and may have little direct contact with physicians, when discussing their progress, prognosis, and goals of care. Such conversations are part of primary palliative care communication. Evidence on primary palliative care communication training in the non-physician HH interprofessional team is lacking. The objectives of this study were to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of using a palliative care communication model known as COMFORT© to provide palliative care communication training to HH staff. A randomized controlled trial was conducted at a regional health system in the southeastern U.S. to test online training modules (n = 10) (Group 1) and online training modules plus face-to-face training (n = 8) (Group 2). Measures included training completion rates, staff acceptability ratings, comfort with palliative and end-of-life communication (C-COPE) and moral distress (MMD-HP). Results showed that COMFORT© training was feasible (92%), highly acceptable (>4 on a 6-point scale), and positively correlated with improved C-COPE scores ( P = .037). There was no significant difference in moral distress scores pre- and post-intervention or in effectiveness between the groups. However, acceptability of COMFORT© was positively correlated with history of leaving or considering leaving a job due to moral distress ([Formula: see text] = 7.6, P = .02). Preliminary findings from this pilot study suggest that administration of COMFORT© training was feasible, and it was correlated with increased HH staff comfort with palliative care communication.

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COMFORT: Evaluating a New Communication Curriculum With Nurse Leaders

Cited by 12 publications

References 35 publications

Communicating with Patients and Families Around Difficult Topics in Cancer Care Using the COMFORT Communication Curriculum

Communicating with Patients and Families Around Difficult Topics in Cancer Care Using the COMFORT Communication Curriculum

Exploring the COMFORT Model for Complex Communication for Physiotherapists in Neurorehabilitation: A Critical Review

Palliative Care Communication Among Home Health Interprofessional Staff: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Effectiveness

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