Analysis of enacted difficult conversations in neonatal intensive care

Objective: To analyze the communicative contributions of interdisciplinary professionals and family members in enacted difficult conversations in neonatal intensive care. Study Design: Physicians, nurses, social workers, and chaplains ( n =50) who attended the Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills, participated in a scenario of a preterm infant with severe complications enacted by actors portraying family members. Twenty-four family meetings were videotaped and analyzed with the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). Result: Practitioners talked more than actor-family members (70 vs 30%). Physicians provided more biomedical information than psychosocial professionals ( P