Effective communication is a skill all healthcare professionals need, but one that not all are naturally good at. Over the course of a working day, healthcare workers can speak to people of varying educational, cultural, and social backgrounds and they must do so in an effective, caring and professional manner.

This five-day training course by KC Academy provides attendees with an intensive overview of the crucial elements that are required to ensure healthcare practitioners and support staff are communicating effectively to both internal and external stakeholders and patients.

This Course Is for You If You’re:

• Health administrators, consultants, researchers, health service and public health practitioners, in mid to senior roles, will benefit from improving their communications skills in relation to sharing healthcare news and research.
• This course is also suited to doctors, physicians, nurses, specialists, pharmacists, and medical scientists who need to manage challenging conversations with patients.
• Doctors, physicians, nurses, specialists, pharmacists, and medical scientists who wish to improve their presentation skills when delivering technical information to a range of audiences.
• Front-office and administrative staff communicating with patients and sharing information.
• Media and communications professionals can also take advantage of this course by learning to better discern medical facts from myth, and accurately communicating health information to the public.
• A healthcare communication employee responsible for the delivery of internal and external communications.
• A spokesperson for a hospital or healthcare organisation looking to enhance your ability to deliver press conferences and handle media interviews and accurately communicate health information to the public.

Learning Outcomes:

During this five-day training course, you will learn:

• The fundamentals of interpersonal skills and building rapport with patients, colleagues, and other stakeholders in a professional manner.
• Common difficulties encountered by the professionals and patients in a clinical setting and how to overcome them.
• Listening techniques which encourage the patients to talk more and facilitate the interaction between the patient and the professional.
• Enhance your presentation skills as a doctor, healthcare, or science worker to deliver technical information in an understandable and engaging way
• How to communicate key messages through the various mediums such as employee intranet, social media, and patient-practice correspondence.
• Accurately communicate health information to the public, and discern medical and scientific facts as an individual within media or communications

Course Outline

Over the duration of this 5-day online course, you will cover the following subject areas:

Day 1

Essential Communication Skills for Healthcare Professionals

• Understand the foundations of effective health communication, and learn the skills required to build strong and trusting relationships.
• Recognise the value and foundational elements of effective communication
• Identify fundamental skills that facilitate effective relationship-centred communication
• Articulate your communication preferences and ability to listen actively
• Practice how communication skills are used in role play scenarios
• Determine the fundamental communication skills needed to build trust and lasting relationships
• Learn how body language can be used to communicate with different audiences
• Practice how communication skills are used in role play scenarios

Day 2

Communicating with Different Audience Groups and Navigating Challenging Conversations in a Healthcare Setting

• Discover the communication skills that are essential when conducting challenging conversations.
• Determine the communication skills that are important when having a challenging conversation
• Choose an appropriate style of communication when engaging in a difficult conversation
• Investigate best practices when navigating challenging conversations
• Assess the importance of effectively giving and receiving feedback during challenging conversations
• Model a challenging conversation using role play

Day 3

Medical and Scientific Presentation Skills

• Explore tools for effective presentation delivery and learn how to connect with an audience.
• Learn how to improve verbal and nonverbal presentation skills
• Determine how to effectively align a message with an audience
• Analyse the use of visual aids and multimedia in presentations
• Evaluate scientific presentation slides for effective communication
• Conduct a compelling presentation that aligns with an audience
• Learn about your personal characteristics and traits and the impact they have on your public speaking style.

Day 4

Media Relations for Healthcare Communications

• Learn new strategies for communicating more effectively with the media and the implications that has on healthcare.
• Learn about best practices for working with the media
• Identify single overriding communication objectives when communicating via the media
• Understand the foundations of effective health communication, and learn the skills required to build strong and trusting relationships.
• Determine how to speak to lay audiences
• Practice effective communication skills by translating complex information into easily understandable and compelling stories
• Develop an understanding of the critical information to be included in briefing books, materials and reports.
• Implement a strategy to respond to news inquiries.

Day 5

Putting Theory into Practice: Practical Workshop for Healthcare Communication

• Undertake a practical workshop to apply your newly acquired skills and improve your health communication skills.
• Respond to a scenario and apply your newly acquired techniques to facilitate effective communication
• Use improvisation and spontaneous facilitated communication skills, and share your
• Articulate a well-communicated response to any given situation
• Relate what you have learned about your ability to communicate effectively and develop an action plan for continuous learning and development