Figure 2.

Fellows’ performance of communication tasks during family meeting simulations. Shows the performance rates for nine communication tasks that faculty facilitators were asked to document in all family meeting simulations. Explicitly attending to emotions refers to any of five strategies used to acknowledge emotions during a communication encounter (reflected in the mnemonic “NURSE” for Naming, Understanding, Respect, Supportive Statement, and Explore). First Simulations refers to family meeting simulations done at the beginning of the month-long curriculum, and Second Simulations refers to those done at the end of the month. Consensus was reached regarding the skill level of each task: level 1 skills were considered necessary for effective communication; level 2 skills were considered intermediate communication skills that could be used to enhance communication and rapport building; level 3 skills were advanced skills that were unlikely to accrue with experience alone. *Comparisons between the first and second simulations were not statistically significant except for the three that are highlighted in the figure.