Communication skills and women's satisfaction with maternity care

ISRCTN	ISRCTN80243969
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN80243969
Protocol serial number	074986; 72
Sponsor	Faculty of Health Sciences/American University of Beirut (Lebanon)
Funder	The Wellcome Trust (UK) (grant ref: 074986) - funding provided to the Faculty of Health Sciences/American University of Beirut (Lebanon) for the programme on Choices and Challenges in Changing Childbirth

Submission date: 25/07/2008
Registration date: 31/07/2008
Last edited: 30/12/2020

Recruitment status: No longer recruiting
Overall study status: Completed
Condition category: Pregnancy and Childbirth

Prospectively registered

Protocol

Statistical analysis plan

Results

Individual participant data

Plain English summary of protocol

Not provided at time of registration

Contact information

Prof Hyam Bashour
Scientific

Faculty of Medicine
Damascus University
P.O.Box 9241
Damascus
9241
Syria

Phone	+963 11 6618328
Email	hbashour@aloola.sy

Study information

Primary study design	Interventional
Study design	A stepped wedge randomised controlled design
Secondary study design	Randomised controlled trial
Study type	Participant information sheet
Scientific title	Effect of doctors' training in interpersonal and communication skills on women's satisfaction at labour and delivery: a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial in Damascus
Study objectives	Training residents in interpersonal and communication skills would improve women's satisfaction with patient-doctor relationship in labour and delivery rooms.
Ethics approval(s)	Ethics approval received from the Institutional Review Board at Damascus University, Faculty of Medicine on the 28th March 2006 (ref: 671).
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied	Women satisfaction with maternity care
Intervention	In the stepped wedged design which is known to be ethically sensitive all will be exposed to intervention by the end of the trial. The timing in which each hospital will receive the intervention (stepping) is randomised. The intervention is a training package which was designed by an international expert in communication skills with activities and role plays based on real example from the maternity wards that were collected from previous research. All residents in the study hospitals will be exposed to training, not necessary at a single point of time as the number of residents in some hospitals is very big to be trained at one time. The training will cover the following themes: 1. An overview of the doctor-patient communication 2. Questioning skills 3. Listening skills 4. Non-verbal communication 5. Answering skills 6. Rapport building skills 7. Counselling skills 8. Skills of persuasion Effective teaching methods will be used as suggested by Maguire and Pitceathly (2002). The training is carried out by an Arab speaker for three days and 20 hours of training. The measurement of outcomes will be carried out after the training in each hospital as well as 2 and 6 months afterwards. Rounds of observation will be done, where each round will include an observation in all rooms, for 3 days and for all shifts including day and night shifts. As for the women satisfaction questionnaire; this will be implemented as well in four points of times excluding the baseline. Nearly one hundred women will be recruited from each hospital. Also, future measurements at 2 and 6 months after the study are considered but will not be part of this study. Thus the expected duration for the intervention in the clusters of hospitals and the measurement will take about 12 months.
Intervention type	Other
Primary outcome measure(s)	Women's satisfaction with interpersonal relationships of doctors working in labour and delivery rooms. The measurement of outcomes will be carried out after the training in each hospital as well as 2 and 6 months afterwards.
Key secondary outcome measure(s)	Change in communicative behaviour of the care providers (residents) serving in labour and delivery rooms. The measurement of outcomes will be carried out after the training in each hospital as well as 2 and 6 months afterwards.
Completion date	01/12/2009

Eligibility

Participant type(s)	Patient
Age group	Adult
Sex	Female
Target sample size at registration	2200
Total final enrolment	2000
Key inclusion criteria	1. Care providers including mainly residents working in the public maternity hospitals in Damascus and its surroundings 2. Women as potential beneficiaries from our intervention would include all women (aged 15 - 49 years) using the hospitals under study. We will target in our measurements all women with living babies who agreed to participate in the study, whether the delivery was normal vaginal or by caesarean section. Women using those hospitals are largely from middle and low socio-economic class.
Key exclusion criteria	All care providers and women who do not meet the inclusion criteria
Date of first enrolment	01/07/2008
Date of final enrolment	01/12/2009

Locations

Countries of recruitment

Syria

Study participating centre

Faculty of Medicine

Damascus
9241
Syria

Results and Publications

Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share	No
IPD sharing plan summary	Not provided at time of registration
IPD sharing plan

Study outputs

Output type	Details	Date created	Date added	Peer reviewed?	Patient-facing?
Results article	results	14/08/2013	30/12/2020	Yes	No
Participant information sheet	Participant information sheet	11/11/2025	11/11/2025	No	Yes

Editorial Notes

30/12/2020: The following changes have been made:
1. Publication reference added.
2. The final enrolment number has been added from the reference.