This course equips healthcare providers with techniques to improve patient interactions and outcomes. Participants master active listening and communication strategies to understand patient needs and convey empathy. The course addresses cultural, language, and literacy challenges to help providers connect with diverse patients. Honing these skills boosts patient satisfaction, trust, and creates a more inclusive, efficient healthcare environment.
What You Will Learn:
- Active listening techniques to fully understand patient needs and concerns
- Verbal and non-verbal communication methods
- Cultural, language, and literacy differences that may affect communication in a healthcare setting
Details:
Course length: 30 minutes; CME: 0.5
Languages: American English
Key features: Audio narration, learning activity, and post-assessment.
American Medical Compliance is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education to physicians. Our Continuing Medical Education (CME) program is committed to enhancing the knowledge, skills, and professional performance of healthcare providers to improve patient care outcomes. Through high-quality educational activities, we aim to address the identified educational gaps and to support the continuous professional development of our medical community. American Medical Compliance designates this activity for a maximum of 2 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. Physicians should only claim this credit for their complete participation in this activity.
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Active and Effective Listening
Active listening is a fundamental aspect of professional interaction, and mastery requires cultivating deliberate practice. Communication is characterized by an exchange in which one party, the sender, transmits information via verbal, written, or nonverbal means to another party, the receiver.
In active listening, it is critical that the receiver acknowledges receipt of the information and provides feedback to the sender to ensure mutual understanding. The ability to communicate effectively is not innate; it is a learned skill that requires ongoing practice and refinement. This proficiency underpins teamwork and builds strong patient relationships, vital for positive healthcare outcomes. Effective communication promotes problem-solving efficacy within teams and significantly reduces the likelihood of errors.
This course teaches healthcare providers essential communication skills. It emphasizes active listening so you truly hear patients and offer clear feedback. It covers effective speaking, writing, and body language. Practice these skills to build strong patient relationships, improve teamwork, and reduce errors for better outcomes.
Clear Communication
Communicating clearly helps your patients understand and act on health information.
Get a qualified interpreter if a patient (or others participating in the visit) wants to use a language other than English. Do not try to “get by” with basic or intermediate foreign language skills or use unqualified interpreters such as family members or untrained staff. Be respectful and caring. Welcome everyone warmly. Ask open-ended questions. Encourage patients and companions to engage in the conversation with open-ended questions. Listen actively and with curiosity. Give patients a chance to tell their story. Limit content and reinforce key points to avoid information overload. Prioritize with the patient what needs to be discussed.
This course trains healthcare providers to communicate clearly so that patients understand and act on health information. Participants learn to use qualified interpreters instead of relying on basic language skills or untrained help, and they welcome everyone with respect and care. These skills boost clear communication, build patient trust, and improve healthcare outcomes.
Strategies for Becoming a Good Listener
The Four Rules of Active Listening
- Seek to understand before you seek to be understood.
- Be non judgmental
- Give your undivided attention to the speaker
- Use silence effectively
When we seek to understand rather than be understood, our modus operandi will be to listen. Often, when we enter into conversation, our goal is to be better understood. We can be better understood, if first we better understand. Empathetic listening demonstrates a high degree of emotional intelligence. If we would speak to anyone about issues important to them, we need to avoid sharing our judgment until we have learned their judgment.
This course teaches healthcare providers active listening skills. Providers prioritize understanding to develop empathy and emotional intelligence. This approach helps them grasp patients’ concerns before judging, leading to stronger relationships and better outcomes.
Characteristics of Successful Talkers
In everyday communication, the goal of talkers is to communicate their messages in a manner that is intelligible to listeners. When they are aware of a speech perception difficulty on the part of the listener due to background noise, a hearing impairment, or a different native language, talkers will naturally and spontaneously modify their speech in order to accommodate the listener. They will likely adopt a distinct speaking style called ‘clear speech’. In an attempt to make themselves more intelligible, talkers will typically speak more slowly, more loudly, and will articulate sounds in a more ‘exaggerated’ manner. Clear speech modifications are aimed at providing the listener with more salient acoustic cues in the speech signal that may enhance their ability to access and comprehend the message.
This course teaches healthcare providers effective communication techniques, including clear speech. Speakers adjust by slowing down, speaking louder, and articulating clearly when facing background noise, hearing impairments, or language differences. Master clear speech to ensure vital health information reaches patients and improves care outcomes.
Benefits of Being Assertive
Professional assertiveness (PA) requires both interpersonal skills and professional expertise to effectively express opinions or knowledge while simultaneously respecting those same competencies in others.
In a healthcare context, PA helps the healthcare professional respectfully share important scientific knowledge without patronizing the patient and while respecting their autonomy. Demonstrating PA in healthcare must not be misconstrued as a call to dominate or force the patient.
Patients assign some disciplinary authority to their HPC because they recognize their expertise and competencies.
Patients gain access to these skills by consulting their HPC to identify and treat their health problems. While patients assign a sort of authority to the HCP and gain access to their skills through, they, however, should be viewed as autonomous decision-makers.
This training course teaches healthcare providers professional assertiveness by balancing interpersonal finesse with expert knowledge. Providers share scientific information clearly and respectfully without patronizing patients and uphold their autonomy. They leverage their expertise while treating patients as independent decision-makers. This balanced approach enhances communication, builds strong relationships, and improves care outcomes.
