# Improving Advanced Communication Skills Towards the Family System: A Scoping Review of Family Meeting Training in Oncology and Other Healthcare Settings

## TL;DR

This review summarizes research on training healthcare professionals to conduct family meetings, highlighting a focus on communication skills but a lack of interprofessional and long-term approaches.

## Contribution

The study provides a comprehensive overview of family meeting training for healthcare professionals, emphasizing communication skills and gaps in interprofessional and longitudinal training.

## Key findings

- Communication skills training is the dominant focus in family meeting education for healthcare professionals.
- There is a lack of interprofessional collaboration and long-term assessment in family meeting training programs.
- Role-play and simulation are the most common teaching methods used in these training programs.

## Abstract

This review aimed to provide an overview of the available research evidence on family meetings education for healthcare professionals. We discussed some specific findings that emerged from our data, which we believe can guide clinicians in designing effective interventions. Data revealed that communication skills training dominated the literature. The topic of communication skills is directly related to the theoretical frameworks of the training, which emphasize the importance of empathy and active listening in communicating and supporting the family system. The training topics are related to advanced communication, but there is a lack of an interprofessional perspective and long-term assessment of the skills learned. According to clinical practice guidelines, family meetings should be conducted by a multiprofessional team, including a physician and a nurse or another key figure involved in patient/family care. It is therefore essential for healthcare professionals to assess the family system they will support. Evaluating these topics helps clinicians offer personalized care, intercepting families with dysfunctional communication styles, so they can work preventively to activate the specialists.

Background/Objectives: Family meetings (FMs) are clinical encounters in a structured space between the patient, family members, and care teams. Healthcare professionals (HPs) often lack formal training in conducting FMs. The scoping review aims to provide an overview of the available research evidence on FMs’ education for HPs. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Scopus. The PCC (Population-Concept-Context) framework was used to define inclusion criteria: educational intervention on FMs aimed at HPs in all settings of care and students of medicine and nursing sciences treating adult patients with oncological and non-oncological diseases. Results: The search retrieved 1017 articles, of which 26 were eligible. The training had as its primary aims the development of communication skills and curriculum development/evaluation. For the most part, palliative care physicians served as trainers, while medical students and residents represented a major part of trainees, underscoring a focus on early-career learners. FM training is mainly provided in the American countries and intensive care settings. Role-play or simulation was the most common teaching method. Pre- and post-interventional designs were the most common, with few studies incorporating longitudinal follow-up to assess skill retention. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used to evaluate interventions. Conclusions: The training topics are related to advanced communication, but there is a lack of an interprofessional perspective and long-term assessment of the skills learned. It is necessary to consider different family types as subjects of communication.