Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (SBAR) Education for Healthcare Students: Assessment of a Training Program

To combat medical error and improve communication, training programs have begun to implement curricula that encompass all members of the care team. Communication failures are a major factor in medical errors. Structured communication tools such as the situational briefing tool, “Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation” (SBAR) has been suggested as a model to structure clinical communication. Effective training of health professions students is important as these students transition into clinical practice.

We plan on describing a SBAR training program and assessment of this program using a reliable SBAR communication skill scoring rubric. First year health profession students from the School of Medicine and School of Nursing participated in an Interprofessional Team Training program. The program consisted of a half-day of didactics, small group discussion and SBAR role play scenarios. The program was assessed by having the students perform a SBAR communication before and after training. These assignments were completed using the Canvas Learning Management System which allows for audio and video recording. The students received a clinical vignette and asked to record their SBAR on Canvas. These recordings were scored on a 20-point scale by a group of IPE experts previously calibrated for use of the SBAR scoring rubric. Complete data for analysis was available for 186 students. Scores improved from 11.4 to 13.8, before and after the training program.