Healthcare Communication Skills Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Doctors and physicians, Nurses and midwives and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CS-210

Before you join: Participants should have experience working in a healthcare, clinical support or patient-facing health service role.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Clinical knowledge does not automatically produce clear, trusted communication. Healthcare professionals must explain complex information under time pressure, respond to fear or anger, obtain informed consent, coordinate across disciplines and maintain professional boundaries. Poorly handled conversations can lead to misunderstanding, complaints, delayed decisions, avoidable risk and reduced adherence. Strong communication improves patient experience while helping clinicians work accurately and confidently with colleagues, patients and families.

This course develops advanced communication skills for healthcare professionals working in patient-facing and multidisciplinary settings. Participants use the Calgary-Cambridge consultation structure to conduct purposeful encounters, apply teach-back and plain-language methods for health literacy, and use motivational interviewing to discuss behaviour change. They practise empathetic responses through NURSE statements, use SPIKES for difficult news, and apply SBAR, closed-loop communication and TeamSTEPPS methods in clinical handovers and safety-critical conversations. The course also addresses interpreters, cultural responsiveness, conflict, remote consultations, documentation and safety-netting.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with realistic healthcare cases, facilitated group analysis, communication simulations and structured peer feedback. Scenarios may include medication counselling, family meetings, deteriorating patients, complaints, diagnostic uncertainty and cross-disciplinary escalation. Participants leave with a personal communication application plan, consultation and handover templates, difficult-conversation scripts and a feedback framework for continued improvement. The five-day instructor-led course is available in classrooms in more than 50 cities or live online, with approximately 6.5 contact hours each day. Participants who complete the course receive a certificate of completion.

What you will be able to do

  • Structure patient consultations using the Calgary-Cambridge Guide and agreed encounter goals.
  • Explain diagnoses, treatments and risks using plain language, teach-back and visual risk methods.
  • Apply motivational interviewing techniques to discuss ambivalence, adherence and behaviour change.
  • Respond to emotion, conflict and complaints using empathy, de-escalation and boundary-setting language.
  • Conduct difficult-news conversations using the SPIKES protocol and calibrated honesty.
  • Deliver concise clinical handovers using SBAR, closed-loop communication and escalation techniques.
  • Adapt communication for interpreters, health literacy, disability and cultural considerations.
  • Create a 30-day communication improvement plan using feedback and deliberate practice.

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence during emotionally charged patient and family conversations
  • Clearer explanations of diagnoses, treatment choices and clinical risk
  • Practical scripts for complaints, conflict and professional boundary-setting
  • Stronger credibility in multidisciplinary discussions and clinical escalations
  • A focused plan for improving observed communication behaviours

For your organisation

  • More consistent patient explanations and informed-consent conversations
  • Safer handovers and earlier escalation of clinical concerns
  • Reduced communication-related complaints and service recovery effort
  • Improved patient adherence through clearer care and medication instructions
  • Better teamwork across clinical roles, specialties and service boundaries

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can structure patient consultations around clear goals, rapport and shared priorities.

  • Calgary-Cambridge consultation structure for opening, gathering, explanation, planning and closure
  • Relationship-centred care principles: respect, empathy, information-sharing, participation and collaboration
  • Contracting agendas when patient, family and clinician priorities conflict
  • Functional versus emotional communication tasks within clinical encounters
  • Micro-skills of attending: SOLER posture, minimal prompts and purposeful silence
  • Reflective self-assessment using encounter goals, observed behaviours and patient response

Participants can explain health information clearly and check whether patients can act on it.

  • Plain-language explanations calibrated to health literacy, stress and prior knowledge
  • Teach-back prompts that verify understanding without testing or blaming patients
  • Chunk-and-check sequencing for diagnoses, medicines, procedures and self-care instructions
  • Risk communication using absolute frequencies, natural frequencies and visual aids
  • Decision aids supporting informed consent, preference elicitation and shared decisions
  • Written follow-up instructions aligned with spoken messages and accessibility needs

Participants can use motivational interviewing to explore ambivalence and agree patient-owned actions.

  • Active listening behaviours: open questions, reflections, summaries and strategic pauses
  • Motivational interviewing OARS for ambivalence about treatment, lifestyle and adherence
  • Complex reflections that identify values, emotions, discrepancies and patient strengths
  • Change talk elicitation through importance, confidence and readiness scaling questions
  • Resistance responses using rolling-with rather than persuasion or premature advice
  • Collaborative goal setting documented as specific, patient-owned next actions

Participants can respond constructively to distress, anger, complaints and inappropriate behaviour.

  • NURSE statements for naming, understanding, respecting, supporting and exploring emotion
  • Empathic acknowledgement without false reassurance, minimisation or defensive explanations
  • De-escalation sequence: regulate tone, establish safety, clarify concerns, offer options
  • Boundary-setting language for abusive, discriminatory or sexually inappropriate behaviour
  • Complaint conversations structured around listening, apology, explanation and resolution
  • Clinician emotional regulation after distressing encounters and cumulative pressure

Participants can communicate significant news honestly, sensitively and with clear follow-up.

  • SPIKES protocol for preparing, perceiving, inviting, informing, responding and summarising
  • Warning shots and signposting before significant diagnostic or prognostic information
  • Calibrated honesty when uncertainty, limited options or poor prognosis remain
  • Family meetings that establish roles, information preferences and decision authority
  • Silence, pacing and checking responses during emotionally charged disclosures
  • Documenting disclosure, questions, decisions and follow-up responsibilities accurately

Participants can communicate urgent clinical information and escalate concerns with clarity.

  • SBAR handovers that state urgency, relevant facts, assessment and recommendation
  • Closed-loop communication for orders, critical results and task confirmation
  • Two-challenge rule and CUS phrases for escalating safety concerns
  • Briefs, huddles and debriefs adapted from TeamSTEPPS team communication
  • Role clarity and shared mental models during rapid multidisciplinary decisions
  • Respectful challenge across hierarchy, specialty boundaries and professional cultures

Participants can adapt healthcare conversations for language, accessibility and cultural needs.

  • Universal precautions approach to health literacy and communication accessibility
  • Professional interpreter briefing, positioning, turn-taking and debriefing protocols
  • Direct speech and short segments when working through interpreters
  • CLAS Standards considerations for culturally responsive language and service access
  • Exploring beliefs and family roles without stereotyping cultural identity
  • Reasonable adjustments for sensory, cognitive, language and neurodiversity needs

Participants can address disagreements directly while preserving safety, respect and working relationships.

  • Interest-based negotiation separates positions from underlying needs and concerns
  • DESC script for assertive requests, feedback and boundary conversations
  • Crucial conversation preparation: facts, stories, emotions, purpose and requests
  • Conflict mapping identifies parties, triggers, power dynamics and common ground
  • Graded assertiveness matched to urgency, risk and organisational hierarchy
  • Repairing trust after miscommunication, delay, error or unmet expectations

Participants can manage remote consultations and document communication decisions safely.

  • Telephone triage questioning establishes identity, urgency, symptoms and safety-netting
  • Video consultation etiquette covering privacy, eye contact, contingency and consent
  • Secure messaging boundaries for response times, escalation and clinical advice
  • Electronic record entries distinguishing observations, interpretations, actions and patient words
  • Consent and confidentiality checks before remote consultations or information sharing
  • Safety-netting statements specifying red flags, actions and contact routes

Participants can identify communication priorities and implement a measurable improvement plan.

  • Communication audit criteria linked to patient experience, safety and continuity
  • Personal trigger mapping for recurring communication pressures and defensive reactions
  • Feedback requests framed around observable behaviours, impact and alternatives
  • Deliberate practice plans using one target skill and rehearsal routine
  • Peer support arrangements for observation, reflection and accountability
  • Thirty-day application plan with measures, milestones and supervisor discussion

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Calgary-Cambridge consultation planning template
  2. Teach-back and plain-language phrase bank
  3. SPIKES difficult-news conversation checklist
  4. SBAR handover and escalation template
  5. NURSE and DESC communication script guide
  6. Thirty-day communication improvement plan

Who should attend

  • Doctors and physicians — need clear consultations, difficult-news skills and safe clinical handovers
  • Nurses and midwives — manage frequent patient, family and multidisciplinary communication demands
  • Allied health professionals — explain care plans and build adherence during limited contact time
  • Clinical managers — lead sensitive conversations, resolve concerns and set communication standards
  • Pharmacists — counsel patients on medicines, risk, adherence and side effects
  • Healthcare administrators — handle complaints, service conversations and patient information requests

Skills and tools covered

Patient-centred consultationsHealth literacy communicationDifficult conversationsClinical handoversConflict de-escalationInterprofessional teamwork

Tools and standards

Calgary-Cambridge Guide, SBAR, SPIKES, TeamSTEPPS

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short, focused briefings followed by healthcare cases, small-group analysis, role simulations and structured feedback. Participants work with consultation, handover, complaint and family-meeting scenarios drawn from clinical services. Instructors demonstrate language patterns, then guide participants in selecting appropriate methods for urgency, emotion, health literacy and professional roles. Group discussion examines what patients hear, what colleagues need and where communication risk arises. Individual application planning converts course methods into workplace actions and feedback requests.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working in a healthcare, clinical support or patient-facing health service role. They should already be familiar with routine professional conversations, confidentiality requirements and the basic purpose of clinical documentation. The course assumes participants may need to explain health information, coordinate with colleagues or communicate with patients and families. No prior formal communication training is required. Participants do not need a medical qualification, management role, counselling credential or previous knowledge of the named communication frameworks.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have experience in a healthcare, health service or patient-facing role. No previous communication course, medical qualification or formal management experience is required.

Bring examples of communication situations that are difficult in your role, without disclosing identifiable patient information. A notebook or device for personal action planning is useful.

It suits clinicians, pharmacists, allied health professionals, clinical leaders and healthcare administrators who communicate with patients, families or multidisciplinary teams. It is particularly relevant for professionals handling sensitive, high-stakes or frequent interactions.

The course applies communication methods to healthcare situations such as consent, health literacy, handovers, difficult news, complaints and patient safety escalation. Cases and language patterns are built around clinical and health-service work rather than general office communication.

Participants leave with reusable consultation, handover and difficult-conversation tools that can be used immediately. The final module produces a 30-day plan linked to real communication pressures in the participant's role.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor briefings, case analysis, group work, simulations, feedback and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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