• Alana Sagin, Dorene Balmer, Rosie Musheno, Jennifer M Olenik, Laura Dingfield, Nadia L Bennett, and C Jessica Dine.
• University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine (A.S., D.B. R.M., J.M.O., L.D., N.L.B., C.J.D.), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Electronic address: Alana.sagin@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2024 Apr 1; 67 (4): e367e374e367-e374.

ContextA growth mindset and mastery approach have gained attention as useful learning orientations in medical education, however few studies of interventions to foster these orientations exist.ObjectivesWe sought to discover whether a communication skills session on delivering serious news could foster a communication growth mindset and/or a mastery approach in medical students.MethodsThis was an interventional survey study of third-year medical students before and after a session on delivering serious news. Students were administered a communication mindset survey before and after the session; achievement goal and learning environment surveys were administered after the session. Chi-square tests were used to assess the difference in pre and post mindsets. Logistic regression was used to determine the odds of achieving a mastery approach with pre- and post-communication growth mindset as the independent variables.ResultsStudents' communication growth mindset increased from 79% (n = 186) before the intervention to 92% (n = 142) after the intervention. Achievement goal analysis demonstrated that 64% (n = 91) of students had a mastery approach, 14% (n = 20) had a performance approach and 22% (n = 32) had an avoidant approach. Ninety-nine percent (n = 151) felt the session provided a safe learning environment. The odds of having a mastery approach correlated with both pre and post-intervention growth mindset, with post-session growth mindset having the strongest correlation.ConclusionsA novel communication skills session on delivering serious news fostered a communication growth mindset in third year medical students. Most students exhibited a mastery approach to learning; this approach was more likely when they had a growth mindset.Copyright © 2024 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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