Avatar Contraception Communication Training

Not Applicable

Not yet recruiting

• Conditions: Communication

• Registration Number: NCT05995574
• Lead Sponsor: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Brief Summary

In order to support the desire of most adolescents to delay pregnancy (parenting) until their own adulthood, pediatricians must be comfortable and skilled in having reproductive health conversations with adolescents and the mothers of adolescents. Advocates for Youth (AFY), a national, youth-facing, well-established, non-profit, is known for innovative sexual and reproductive health programs. AFY successfully implemented a virtual simulation for schoolteachers to practice sex education scenarios by interacting with culturally diverse student avatars. We will partner with AFY to adapt their novel simulation-based approach to train medical residents in using SDM with youth and parent avatars. Our long-term goal is to build clinician confidence in SDM and actual skills via simulation training with dyadic avatars. We will also explore how evaluation of clinician communication skills varies from youth-, parent-, and clinician-viewpoints.

Detailed Description

Specific Aims seek to (1) iteratively adapt and refine the simulation training (1a) and measurement tools (1b) with three community advisory boards (CAB) of separate groups of teens, parents, and clinicians; and (2) conduct a proof-of-concept pre-post evaluation of clinician confidence in counseling dyads after one-time exposure to the simulation (n=100 medical residents). We will record residents' communications in the simulation and a subset of clinicians, parents, and adolescents from each CAB will evaluate residents' SDM skills via the Person-Centered Contraception Counseling (PCCC) scale. Hypothesis: Most medical residents (75%) will self-report improvement or stability in confidence with high acceptability of the simulation training. We will explore 1) overall concordance between self- and expert-reported evaluation outcomes (SDM skills, PCCC scale); 2) compare the distribution of each evaluation item by evaluator; and 3) explore correlations between scales by evaluator. Impact: This proof-of-concept study, co-developed and co-evaluated with community members and families, fills a gap in communication training to inform a future fully powered ORBIT stage 3 efficacy trial to test actual triadic communication in the real-world with comparator groups of medical residents across national training programs.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2023-05-16
• Study First Submitted QC: 2023-08-15
• Study First Posted: 2023-08-16
• Status Verified: 2024-10
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-10-02
• Last Update Posted: 2024-10-08
• Study Start: 2025-07-01
• Primary Completion: 2030-06-30
• Study Completion: 2030-06-30

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 166

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

• Unable to speak or read in Spanish/English

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: SINGLE_GROUP

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Questionnaire	Change from baseline (T0) at 0 hours, and end of training (T2) at 2 hours	Multiple questions will be aggregated to arrive at one reported value to determine "improvement or stability in confidence" in shared decision-making communication.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Acceptability Questionnaire	At end of study (T2) at 2-hours	Weiners implementation outcome measure Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM). Items are measured on a 5-point Likert scale (Completely Disagree-Completely Agree). Score is calculated mean with the higher score meaning acceptability.
Questionnaire	Change from start (T1) at 20 minute to end of training (T2) at 2 hours	Expert evaluation of behavioral outcome (SDM (shared decision-making) skills and PCCC (person-centered contraception counseling) from start (T1) to end of training (T2)

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

Childrens Health Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine (AYA) Clinic; 🇺🇸 Dallas, Texas, United States

UT Southwestern Medical Center; 🇺🇸 Dallas, Texas, United States