# Stakeholders’ Perspective on the Key Features of Printed Educational Resources to Improve the Quality of Clinical Communication

## TL;DR

This study identifies key features of printed educational resources that can help healthcare professionals improve difficult conversations with patients.

## Contribution

The study presents three stakeholder-identified features for effective printed educational resources in clinical communication.

## Key findings

- PERs should have potential to provide benefits in clinical practice.
- PERs should facilitate, encourage, and entice reading.
- PERs should meet professionals' needs to improve or update their knowledge.

## Abstract

Social and healthcare professionals often feel ill equipped to effectively engage in difficult conversations with patients, and poor proficiency negatively affects the quality of patient care. Printed educational resources (PERs) that provide guidance on sustaining complex clinical communication may be a source of support if thoughtfully designed. This study aimed to describe the key features of PERs in order to improve the quality of clinical communication according to the perspective of meaningful stakeholders. This was a descriptive secondary analysis of data collected by three remote focus group discussions that involved 15 stakeholders in the context of developing an educational booklet to support professionals in complex communication scenarios. Focus groups were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, and an inductive thematic analysis was performed. Three key features of PERs that aim toward quality improvement in clinical communication were identified: (1) having the potential to provide benefits in clinical practice; (2) facilitating, encouraging, and enticing reading; and (3) meeting the need of professionals to improve or update their knowledge. These findings suggest that PERs relevant to professionals’ clinical priorities and learning needs may make their efforts to apply learning in practice more likely and consequently result in improved healthcare quality.