Course Outcomes

This communication course for healthcare professionals will:

  • Explore specific behaviors that convey a caring attitude.
  • Outline actions organizations can take to create a patient-centric environment.
  • Help the staff replace mixed messages with supportive, therapeutic, and caring language.
  • Allow time for skills practice outside of high-stress real-time events.

Course Overview

In the information age, every patient has a media voice and access to a readily available audience.  People can publicly like you, tweet about you, or write a scathing review in a matter of seconds.  More than ever and beyond clinical outcomes, how someone is cared for can make the difference between a great reputation and one that scares potential customers and talented staff away.

People skills can make the difference, and if a staff is trained to convey genuine caring and consideration, an organization can become the leader in its field.  The Language of Caring: Connection, Compassion, and Communication in Healthcare covers everything from establishing rapport to confirming patients understand their discharge instructions before sending them home.

This course can be tailored to clinical and non-clinical staff or a mix of both.

Program Objectives

At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Introduce themselves confidently and comfortably.
  • Use questions to build positive relationships.
  • Discern how others process communication.
  • Recognize and address signs of discomfort and displeasure.
  • Incorporate patient-centric vocabulary in their daily interactions.
  • Use body language that communicates compassion and caring.
  • Develop their natural traits toward becoming authentic, personable, and memorable.

The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of participant materials prior to the session(s).

Workshop Outline

A Great Place to Work: See It

You can’t be great if you don’t know what great looks like and sounds like.  In this opening discussion, participants will identify the characteristics of a positive, patient-centric workplace. Next, they will identify the benefits of working to achieve that vision.  Finally, they will pinpoint quick wins and actions they can control to positively affect change.

Communication Preference: Understand It

People don’t look alike, and they certainly don’t think alike. During this workshop module, we will examine three ways people take in information and how as service providers, participants can package communication to best address distinct methods of gathering data.     

Communication Standards: State It

How people portray themselves, the words and phrases they choose, and how they deliver information can make or break the customer experience.  In this seminar segment, participants will examine body language, words and phrases that communicate positive messages, and how tone of voice affects communication. 

The Process Map: Know It

“Walk a mile in my shoes. See what I see.  Hear what I hear.  Feel what I feel. Then maybe you will understand why I do what I do.” In this part of the program, participants will consider customer interactions from the point of view of their customers. The group will then identify opportunities at each step of the process where they can influence opinion. 

Natural Talent: Embrace It

Plastic, canned, staged, superficial, artificial, automated, fake!  No matter what you call it, customers can sense insincerity from a mile away.  For that reason, scripted or heavily programmed approaches to patient care almost always fail to generate desirable results.  During this part of the program, participants will identify their natural communication gifts and learn how to enhance and hone those talents.  Next, they will discuss specific steps they can take to communicate with authenticity.

Negativity: Prevent It

When negative behaviors enter the workplace, patient opinions can quickly go from bad to worse.  In this final program segment, participants will learn how their actions toward each other impact the patient experience and how extra support and camaraderie among staff can influence satisfaction scores.

By the conclusion of this customer service and communication skills course, participants should have a clear understanding of the words they can say and actions they can take to connect with patients and their families.  Furthermore, they will understand the small choices they can make to influence satisfaction and build their organization’s reputation in the eyes of the public.