Enhancing health care communication skills: preliminary evaluation of a curriculum for family caregivers.

The Communicating Effectively with Health Care Professionals (CE) workshop curriculum is designed for family caregivers to encourage caregiver empowerment, effective health care communication, and advocacy in medical care contexts with the goal of promoting positive health outcomes for care recipients. This mixed-method study employed a cross-sectional quantitative mail survey (N = 51) and semistructured qualitative telephone interviews (N = 14) to examine the effectiveness of the curriculum in promoting self-reported changes in caregiver attitudes and communication behavior. Respondents reported increased assertiveness in medical encounters, feelings of empowerment, and preparation and organization of medical information for their care recipients as a result of workshop participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]