Research Article Impact of a Simulation-Based Communication Workshop on Resident Preparedness for End-of-Life Communication in the Intensive Care Unit Abraham Markin, Diego F. Cabrera-Fernandez, Rebecca M. Bajoka, Samantha M. Noll, Sean M. Drake, Rana L. Awdish, Dana S. Buick, Maria S. Kokas, Kristen A. Chasteen, and Michael P. Mendez Department of Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital, 2799 West Grand Boulevard, Detroit, MI 48202, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Abraham Markin; amarkin1@hfs.org Received 31 March 2015; Revised 2 June 2015; Accepted 10 June 2015 Academic Editor: Djillali Annane Copyright © 2015 Abraham Markin et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction. Although residents frequently lead end-of-life (EOL) discussions in the intensive care unit (ICU), training in EOL care during residency has been required only recently, and few educational interventions target EOL communication in the ICU. Tis study evaluated a simulation-based intervention designed to improve resident EOL communication skills with families in the ICU. Methods. Tirty-four second-year internal medicine residents at a large urban teaching hospital participated in small group sessions with faculty trained in the “VitalTalk” method. A Likert-type scale questionnaire measured self-assessed preparedness before, immediately following, and approximately 9 months afer intervention. Data were analyzed using Wilcoxon rank-sum analysis. Results. Self-assessed preparedness signifcantly improved for all categories surveyed (preintervention mean; postintervention mean; p value), including discussing bad news (3.3; 4.2;  < 0.01), conducting a family conference (3.1; 4.1;  < 0.01), discussing treatment options (3.2; 3.9;  < 0.01), discussing discontinuing ICU treatments (2.9; 3.5;  < 0.01), and expressing empathy (3.9; 4.5;  < 0.01). Improvement persisted at follow-up for all items except “expressing empathy.” Residents rated the educational quality highly. Conclusion. Tis study provides evidence that brief simulation-based interventions can produce lasting improvements in residents’ confdence to discuss EOL care with family members of patients in the ICU. 1. Introduction Conducting end-of-life (EOL) discussions with patients’ fam- ilies is an essential skill for residents in the intensive care unit (ICU). Approximately 22% of all US deaths occur in the ICU [1], and 75% of patient care decisions in the ICU are made by family members [2]. Efective physician-patient communica- tion has been shown to improve measurable outcomes [3], including decreased ICU length of stay [4, 5] and reduced psychological distress among patients’ families [6, 7]. EOL discussions have been associated with less aggressive care near death and earlier hospice referrals [8]. Accordingly, efective communication in the ICU has been embedded in national quality measures [9]. Although the Accreditation Council for Graduate Med- ical Education has mandated training in EOL care for internal medicine residents [10], a nationally standardized curriculum does not exist. Research has shown suboptimal quality of EOL discussions [11, 12], and many residents remain uncomfortable discussing EOL care [13]. Simulation- based educational interventions have been shown to improve residents’ ability to use recommended EOL communication skills [14–16], but few have focused on improving resident communication skills for family meetings in the ICU setting. In addition, many published educational interventions for residents were studied before EOL education was required in medical school [17], leaving their efectiveness for current residents unknown. Hindawi Publishing Corporation Critical Care Research and Practice Volume 2015, Article ID 534879, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/534879