# Equity Focused Communication Intervention for Family-Centered Rounds

> **NIH NIH K23** · DUKE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $162,269

## Abstract

Abstract/Project Summary
When admitted to the hospital, Black and Latino(a/x) children are at greater risk of medical
errors, surgical complications, longer, more-costly hospital stays, and mortality compared to
White children. Although many factors play a role, poor clinician communication likely
contributes to these disparities in health outcomes. Across settings, including our preliminary
work in the inpatient pediatric environment, Black and Latino(a/x) patients have been shown to
experience worse communication quality as evidenced by less patient and family-centered,
empathic, and respectful communication as compared to White patients. Despite robust
evidence that communication inequities exist and influence health outcomes, few have
developed and tested communication interventions with a focus on equity. To meet this
evidence gap we will test the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of an equity-
focused communication intervention that teaches clinicians communication skills grounded in
principles of racial equity, language justice, and structural humility. To do this, we will co-
develop and refine a clinician coaching communication intervention with iterative feedback from
Black and Latino(a/x) caregivers as well as clinicians of children in the hospital. We will then
randomize 10 clinicians to an intervention or waitlist group; clinicians in the intervention group
will receive the intervention immediately, while clinicians in the waitlist group will initially serve
as the control arm then receive the intervention to provide feasibility and acceptability data. We
will assess the feasibility of recruiting and collecting data as well as acceptability of the
intervention by clinicians. We will explore preliminary efficacy for the effect of the intervention on
clinician-caregiver communication quality. We hypothesize that our intervention will improve
clinician communication quality through increasing behaviors of partnership, affirmation,
support, respect, and interpreter best practice, which will lead to greater caregiver participation
during family-centered rounds. We will explore the effect of the intervention on caregiver
empowerment, adverse events, length of stay, and child 7 and 30 day unplanned readmission.
The new knowledge generated from the proposed research will guide our research team in
designing and conducting an NIH R01 clinical trial of the intervention to enhance the standard of
care for children admitted to the hospital.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10882295
- **Project number:** 1K23MD018433-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** DUKE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Victoria Parente
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $162,269
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-06-20 → 2027-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10882295

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10882295, Equity Focused Communication Intervention for Family-Centered Rounds (1K23MD018433-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10882295. Licensed CC0.

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