Simulated Patient-based Communication Skills Training versus Role-play for Teaching of Verbal De-escalation Skills to Health Professionals: A Comparative Study

Background: Verbal de-escalation can be useful in reducing patient agitation during challenging patient interactions. This is best taught by experiential learning methods such as simulation-based teaching and role-play methods. Aim: We aimed to determine an effective educational approach to teach communication skills to health professionals. Materials and Methods: This study had an experimental study design where 72 students were distributed in a nonrandomized manner to the two arms of the study, i.e., simulated patient-based communication skills training arm (SP-based CST) and the role-play-based communication skills training arm (RP-based CST) for learning verbal de-escalation skills. 36 students received communication skills training via RP-based CST method and 36 via SP-based CST method. An Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) checklist with rubrics was developed with good content validity and reliability for the purpose of assessment of the learning. Student satisfaction questionnaire and retrospective pretest were also administered. Results: The two arms of the study were found to be comparable on age, gender, and pretraining multiple-choice question scores. The SP-based CST group had a higher mean OSCE score compared to RP-based CST group, which was statistically significant (mean 19.9, standard deviation [SD] = 3.22 vs. 16.3, SD = 3.29; t = −4.54, df = 65.0, P < 0.001). However, students from both arms found their communication skills training sessions to be satisfactory, and there was no statistically significant difference (mean 23.1, SD = 2.69 vs. 22.7, SD = 3.72; U = 482, P = 0.671). Conclusion: The SP-based CST produced superior learning outcomes when compared to RP-based CST for teaching verbal de-escalation skills during challenging patient interactions. However, students from both arms found their training to be satisfactory.