Workshop Symposia

Improving Health Outcomes with Well-Designed Communication Competency Training (W003)

Mila Kostic (Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA); Sean M. Hayes, PsyD (AXDEV Group, Brossard, Quebec, Canada); Laura Young, MD, PhD (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA)

Synopsis

In spite of growing evidence about the value of training to improve effective communication skills in clinical settings, most CME/CPD providers still struggle to find feasible means to incoporate this type of training in their educational offerings. This highly interactive workshop will provide opportunities for competence, confidence and resource building to support these efforts for future CME program design and will demonstrate the value and successful examples of such education.

Purpose

Building effective communication skills has been recognized in UME and GME as critical in the education of future clinicians, particularly in chronic care management. Despite these efforts, to date few CME programs have successfully engaged busy practicing clinicians to improve their current communication skills, in part because many are unaware of their gaps in this area. Sharing of best practices in designing and deploying such educational programming is of value to educators and planners in the CME/CPD field.

Format

Participant Self-Assessment Survey

Overview (5 minutes)

Building Evidence and Knowledge Base (15 minutes)

  • Evidence and the impact of successful communication training
  • Demonstration of the effective use of the Standardized Patient technique as an introduction to the small group exercise

Building Competence to Designing Effective Communication Training in CME/CPD (small group expertfacilitated interactive session — 25 minutes)

  • Presentation and give-away of the published Communication Tools and Resources to all participants: Validated Screening Tools and Resources, Motivational Interviewing Tools, Clinical Communication Mnemonics Cards and Practice Feedback Tools
  • Identification and review of elements that can be successfully adopted in the larger CME community and inventory of helpful strategies based on the presented examples and resources
  • Exchange of ideas and successful peer projects in developing competency-based communication training

Reinforcing Key Messages: Putting it All Together (10 minutes)

  • Faculty and participants discussion: highlights and feedback from small-group session (10 minutes) Assessment Survey and Evaluation (5 minutes)

Expected Outcomes for Participants

  1. Review evidence, and value to, to incorporate competency-based communication training in CME/ CPD programming
  2. Identify successful strategies for development of communication training using techniques such as standardized patient workshops and web-based modular curricula
  3. Implement tools and resources provided in the workshop to plan and incorporate patient-centered communication skill development and training in CME/CPD Programs