On Care and the Sensitive Experience of Caregiver Activity in Simulation Situations: A Possible Model for Encounters Between Health Practitioners and Their Patients to Enhance Communication Training

According to the evolution of paradigms in medicine, we study the “care beyond cure” through the analysis of a medical simulation training named “communication skills”. These simulation sessions train physicians to deliver difficult diagnoses to patients (who are children) and to their families (especially the parents). That singularity makes them very suitable for investigating the integration of sensitive dimensions of healthcare into practitioner training. Based on the observation of 16 simulations cases, the results focus the analysis of post-simulation debriefings. We analyze through the verbalizations the lived experience of participants during the simulation and the link with their professional lives In all the sessions observed, trainers had a facilitator role consisting in encouraging participants to speak about their subjective experience. However, results show a great variability in the way participants tell and share their simulation experiences. The results describe the dimensions of simulated and work activities that are discussed during debriefings, with a special focus on the sensitive dimensions addressed by participants. These results suggest opportunities for future exploration of simulation models integrating the sensitive dimensions of healthcare activities. Sensitive dimensions can be integrated in scenarios or in the trainer’s reminders.