Tier 2 Applied Communication Skills– Online (Zoom)

This 3 hour online workshop is interactive and uses active learning strategies such as large group and small group discussions using Zoom, and also role play work with professional actors in virtual breakout rooms. We have had excellent feedback about the usefulness of these methods of teaching, and participants often surprise themselves with how engaging and enjoyable the course is.

Course Content 

The course will provide the following learning opportunities:

• How to build rapport even when personally disagreeing with the other person’s viewpoint
• How to talk with more than one person (eg family meeting) when there are strongly held and differing points of view
• Managing anger (e.g. a patient’s relative is furious that his father has been waiting a long time)
• Boundaries and assertiveness: (e.g. saying ‘no’ to a patient who is insisting on something the clinician feels is not appropriate)
• Sensitive issues: (e.g. interacting with patients who may feel embarrassed or sensitive about their health habits or sexual practices)
• Giving serious news: (e.g. unexpected cancer diagnosis or telling family member about a serious accident outcome such as major injury or death)

Process

The modality of this course will be 100% online, building on the theory presented in the Tier I Communication Skills video course, and thus enabling a mixture of self-paced and real-time on-line teaching and discussion in the group.

Practicalities and Session Timing

The online learning will be facilitated by 2 senior Connect facilitators, and although the theory will be briefly referred to, it is expected that all participants have watched the Communication Skills videos. The teaching will be case based, there will be facilitated discussion, and small group practice opportunities with professional actors playing the role of the patient (ratio of 3 participants to each actor). Breakout Rooms will be used for small group discussions and participant role-plays. In these breakout rooms, participant trios will rotate roles (‘clinician’, ‘observer 1’, ‘observer 2’) and each participant will have a chance to enact the ‘clinician role’ with a medically trained actor.

Tier 2 Applied Supervision Skills– Online (Zoom)

This 2 hour online workshop is an opportunity to apply the skills learnt in the Tier 1 video course. The course is interactive and uses active learning strategies such as large group and small group discussions using Zoom, and also role play work with medically trained actors in virtual breakout rooms. The practice scenarios will include giving feedback to a trainee who is underperforming, debriefing a critical incident, and how to engage when a trainee is struggling with a health issue which is negatively impacting their performance. There will also be a live demonstration role play by the facilitator and an actor, so that the skills and techniques can be debriefed together.

Course Content:

The topics that will be addressed in the Tier 2 workshop are as follows:

• Managing the dual responsibility of providing oversight and giving feedback to trainee regarding their competence and professionalism, alongside the provision of support.
• Managing personality issues – such as the trainee with high confidence, low competence, and poor insight.
• Differentiating between issues of health, conduct and competence, which often overlap, and learning the skills to communicate and provide appropriate feedback.

Process

The modality of this course will be 100% online, building on the theory presented in the Level I Supervision Skills video course, thus enabling a mixture of self-paced and real-time on-line learning and discussion in the group.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the Tier 2 Applied Supervision workshop, the participants will be able to:

• Demonstrate the use of communication techniques in various supervision scenarios such as in giving feedback to a poorly performing trainee who has high confidence and low insight.
• Identify, evaluate and appropriately manage situations in which trainees require extra input, demonstrating an ability to balance the dual requirements of providing support whilst overseeing performance and maintaining boundaries.
• Identify areas for improvement in their current practice as a supervisor and formulate specific steps that they intend to take to implement these changes in their supervision practice.
• Appraise their own standard as an ‘assessor’ of trainees, by reflecting on the grade they chose to award a trainee in comparison with grades awarded by other supervisors during a live simulated moderation exercise.