We Have to Talk: Results of an Interprofessional Clinical Simulation for Delivering Bad Health News in Palliative Care

• Graduate nurse practitioner and social works students gained competency in delivery of bad health news using evidence-based strategies from professional literature.
• Graduate nurse practitioner and social work students were paired to deliver bad health news in a primary care setting and their readiness to work together improved after simulation.
• Students gained proficiency in working as a team with interprofessional goal setting and communication.

BackgroundPrimary care providers, including nurse practitioners and social workers, are often the first point of contact in communicating difficult health news to their clients.MethodThis article reports an innovative interprofessional simulation created by faculty to pair graduate nurse practitioner and social work students to deliver bad health news in a simulated primary care setting.ResultsStudents improved in their readiness to work together in delivering bad news and reported that they gained proficiency in completing this task.ConclusionsThis project promoted improved communication and interprofessional practice skills in graduate nursing and social work students.