The Fundamentals of Communication in Surgery (FCS): A Pilot Study to Evaluate the Scalability and Impact of A Clinical Communication Curriculum

The researchers have developed a 5-year curriculum for surgical trainees called the Fundamentals of Communication in Surgery (FCS). The training includes core communication skills, e.g., expressing empathy, and frameworks to support informed consent and serious illness conversations, specifically Best Case/Worst Case and Better Conversations. The curriculum provides one developmentally appropriate two-hour session for each of the five years of surgical training. Because the training is skills based (e.g., scenario planning) and not procedure based (e.g., goals of care conversations) exercises are focused on specific techniques that build over subsequent sessions.

Researchers will invite 1-3 surgical attendings per site with an interest in surgical education to serve as trainers for the FCS curriculum.

All general surgery trainees at each institution will have access to the training program as part of their regularly scheduled educational curriculum, regardless of training year or status as a categorical resident. If there is interest, researchers will provide access to the curriculum to fellows and residents in affiliated programs, e.g., plastic surgery.

Researchers will invite site personnel who have roles related to surgical education including the program director and associate program director (if applicable), 2 to 3 attending surgeons who have high contact with residents in urgent care settings (e.g., emergency general surgery), 1 to 2 members of the education coordination team.