The goal for this trial is to test the effect of an educational programme on communication and play for healthcare professionals working with children and adolescents. The main questions to answer are:

1. Does a 45-minute educational intervention on communication and play have the same effect on healthcare professionals' self-efficacy in patient-centredness compared with a three-hour intervention?
2. What is the effect of the intervention on participants' motivation to engage in the educational activity, cognitive load, knowledge, satisfaction, and the impact on their individual practice ?

Participants will be randomly assigned to either a 45-minute or a three-hour educational intervention. They will complete a questionnaire at three time points: before the intervention, immediately after, and at a 12-week follow-up.

BACKGROUND: Communication is an essential skill for all healthcare professionals working with children and adolescents in hospitals. There is growing focus on child-centred communication, which emphasize communicating directly with children and adolescents in healthcare rather than focusing on the parents. However, educational programmes for this remain limited while those that exist are heterogenous and often assessed without comparison groups or validated tools.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect on healthcare professionals' self-efficacy of a 45-minute vs three-hour educational intervention on communication and the use of play in clinical paediatric practice

INTERVENTION: This trial evaluates the educational programme "Communication and Play with Children and Adolescents in Healthcare", which focuses on age-appropriate communication with paediatric patients, including the deliberate use of play. The trial compares two educational interventions that differ in duration (45 minutes vs. three hours) and learning methods. While both interventions include didactic learning, reflection, and discussions, the three-hour session adds role-play activities, whereas the 45-minute session delivers a condensed version without role-play.

DESIGN: Single-centre, randomized, controlled, two-arm, noninferiority trial. A noninferiority design is used to assess whether there is a difference between the two educational interventions or if the 45-minute educational intervention is comparable to the three-hour educational intervention.

SETTING: The University Hospital of Copenhagen - Rigshospitalet, Denmark.

RECRUITMENT: All healthcare professionals working in the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at Rigshospitalet will be eligible to participate. Potential participants will be contacted by their leaders and be informed of the study. A written consent will then be obtained.

SAMPLE SIZE: The sample size calculation assumes that the 45-minute intervention is as effective as the three-hour intervention for the primary outcome (self-efficacy). A non-inferiority margin of 0.25 points is set, meaning the mean self-efficacy score for the 45-minute intervention can be up to 0.25 points lower than that of the three-hour intervention without being considered inferior. Based on a one-sided two-sample t-test with a margin of 0.25, an alpha of 0.025, a power of 80%, and a standard deviation of 0.45 derived from the pilot study, the required sample size is 52 participants per group. Since the intervention is conducted in clusters of 25 participants, the sample size calculation is adjusted for cluster randomization by multiplying by the design effect, calculated as 1 + (cluster size - 1) × ICC. Assuming an ICC of 0.01 results in a design effect of 1.24 and an adjusted sample size of 65 per group. Accounting for a 10% dropout rate, the final required sample size is 72 per group. It is planned to include a total of 150 participants.

RANDOMIZATION: Eligible participants will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either a 45-minute educational intervention or a three-hour educational intervention using computer-generated block randomization through REDCap. The randomization process will ensure an interprofessional distribution of participants in each intervention group. Both the statistician and the researchers conducting the analysis will be blinded to participant allocation.

ETHICS: This trial complies with the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for biomedical research. Approval has been obtained from the Danish Data Protection Agency (P-2021-426). The study was approved but deemed exempt from requiring ethical approval by The Scientific Ethical Committees for the Capital Region of Denmark (Journal-nr.: H-21028050). Participation is entirely voluntary, and both educational interventions will take place during working hours at no cost to the participants. Participants may withdraw from the study at any time without any repercussions. To ensure confidentiality, all data will be securely stored in a protected database.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthcare professionals employed in the Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at Rigshospitalet (nurses, doctors, physiotherapist, occupational therapists, dieticians, medical secretaries, and social workers)
• Provide signed informed consent before randomisation

Exclusion Criteria:

• Staff taking part in planning of the intervention
• Lack of informed consent

De-identified individual participant data to replicate the analysis will be available from the corresponding author (ORCID: 0000-0002-0093-8555) on reasonable request until five years after completion of the study, according to Danish law.