Who Should Attend

The course is meant for teachers of health professionals who wish to explore the underlying skills and structure of communication in health care interactions. It is suitable for teachers of a variety of experience, particularly for those early on in the teaching careers.

“What to Teach” Course

The “What to teach” course is highly interactive and participant centred. It will be facilitated by experienced teachers from tEACH. The proceedings will be held in English and as much as possible will accommodate participants for whom English is not their first language.

The primary focus of this two day, non-residential course will be on the structure and skills of health-care communication. The course will look at the various models in use to conceptualise health care communication, and how to utilise these to analyse communication skills in observed encounters with patients. This will help participants to:

• clarify what they are trying to teach and learn,
• define the individual specific skills of communication
• break down the complex task of the interview into its individual components.

The course will be a mixture of experiential learning and didactic teaching. We will explore communication skills by observing prepared videos. We will also work in small groups with simulated patients to recreate situations where we can analyse communication skills within a teaching session.

“How to Teach” Course

The course is meant for teachers of health professionals who want to learn more about key strategies to facilitate experiential communication skills teaching. It is suitable for teachers of a variety of experience with experiential educational methods.

This two day, non-residential course will be highly interactive, participant-centred and experiential. It will be facilitated by experienced teachers from the teaching committee of EACH: International Association of Communication in Healthcare. Feedback from previous courses has been extremely positive.

The focus will be on how to teach, especially facilitation of small groups, rather than what to teach or how to develop a curriculum. As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• apply educational theory to designing effective communication skills training;
• describe key components of effective experiential communication skills training sessions;
• use role play, video, small groups and simulated patients to enhance learner communication skills;
• structure feedback to enhance learning in communication training sessions:
• and describe strategies for managing large and small group dynamics in communication training sessions.

The course will be held in English and as much as possible will accommodate participants for whom English is not their first language.

Who Should Attend

The course is meant for experienced teachers of communication skills for health professionals who want to refresh their skills, enthusiasm and develop new strategies for some of the challenges they face in their teaching.

 “The Challenges” Course

This two day course will be highly interactive, participant-centred and experiential.

The focus will be on common challenges faced when delivering experiential communication skills training. Participants will be given opportunities to identify and work on some of the particular challenges they identify.

As a result of this workshop, participants will be able to

• more effectively facilitate small groups and to use role play, video and simulated patients to enhance learners communication skills.

We are aware that institutions in different countries will have varying resources in terms of available teachers, simulated patients and technology. Therefore the course will to a high degree be tailored  to fit the teaching practice of the participants.

The course will be held in English and as much as possible will accommodate participants for whom English is not their first language.

It will be facilitated by experienced teachers from tEACH.

Who Should Attend

The course is meant for teachers of health professionals who wish to develop a new curriculum or extend an existing communication skills curriculum. It is suitable for teachers of a variety of experience of curriculum development.

Curriculum Course

The Curriculum course will be highly interactive and participant centred and will enable individual participants to formulate concrete plans for the future. Feedback from previous courses has been extremely positive.

The primary focus of this two day course will be on how to develop a curriculum suitable to the healthcare setting the participant operates within. The course will look at what to include in the curriculum and how to deliver and evaluate the curriculum.

As a result of this course, participants will be able to:

• apply relevant educational theory to designing effective communication skills curricula
• understand how to ensure learners master an increasing range of skills and retain them over time
• select and organise the core content of the communication curriculum
• tailor content in relation to  their learners’ needs
• select appropriate teaching methods for each component of the curriculum
• integrate communication with other clinical skills and the rest of the learners’ programme and evaluate the curriculum.

The proceedings will be held in English and as much as possible will accommodate participants for whom English is not their first language. We are also aware that different institutions in different countries will have varying resources in terms of available teachers, simulated patients and technology.

Who Should Attend

The course is meant for teachers of health professionals who wish to explore the underlying principles and practicalities of assessment in communication. It is suitable for teachers of a variety of experience of assessment. Note: this course is not about detailed psychometrics nor does it cover all the psychometrics of assessments in depth. Feedback from previous courses has been very positive.

Assessment Course

The Assessment course will be highly interactive and participant centred. It will be facilitated by expert tEACH members. The proceedings will be held in English and as much as possible will accommodate participants for whom English is not their first language.

The primary focus of this two day course will be on how to develop assessments suitable to the healthcare setting that the participant operates in. A particular feature of the course will be the opportunity for participants to gain first-hand experience with different assessment methods. Moreover, participants will be able to share their experiences and questions, and will work on their own new assessment ventures or on ideas how to improve or extend existing assessment programmes in their home educational setting.

The course will look at the importance of assessment, general assessment principles, formative versus summative assessment, the suitability of different methods to different assessment outcomes, the feasibility and costs of different formats, the use of simulated patients and video in assessment, OSCE assessment, workplace assessment, written assessment, basic psychometric requirements, and legal and ethical issues.

Who should attend

The course is directed towards teachers of health professionals (for example medical students, nurses, physiotherapists, doctors) who are engaged in clinical supervision of learners as well as educators involved in supporting clinical training. It is suitable for teachers of a variety of experience.

The Workplace Teaching and Learning Course

The course will be highly interactive and participant centred, with a mixture of experiential learning and didactic teaching. It will be facilitated by experienced tEACH facilitators. The proceedings will be held in English and as much as possible will accommodate participants for whom English is not their first language.

The primary focus of this two-day course will be on approaches to incorporating teaching about communication into the clinical workplace, such as in clinics and on hospital wards where learners participate in patient care. While teaching communication skills during clinical training is important in order to reinforce communication skills learned in formal courses and develop new skills, clinical supervisors can find this task challenging to accomplish.  This course will explore “informal” clinical communication teaching opportunities such as role modelling, observation and responding to patient presentations as well as more formal one to one and small group approaches such as video review, role play and reflection using learners’ immediate clinical experiences.

In the course, participants will be able to:

• share their experiences and concerns regarding opportunities, strategies and challenges for communication teaching in the clinical setting
• train and empower clinical supervisors to address communication skills during clinical teaching
• address obstacles that participants face in attempting to address communication skills during clinical training
• practice a variety of approaches to clinical communication skills teaching using materials such as role play, clinical vignettes and trainee videos
• identify how insights and take home points from the course can be practically implemented in their specific institutional setting.