Basic Information

Name: Mandy Williams
Title: Coach/Trainer of Clinical Communication Skills
Institution: 2A Coaching/Training
Discipline: Education
Years of experience: 20

Teacher/Training

• Undergraduate
• Postgraduate
• Continuous Professional Development

Description

Three keywords describing expertise and interest:

1. Experiential
2. Remediation

Description of field of expertise, major interests, and consultation topics:

My area of expertise includes facilitating clinical communication skills training (CCST) for clinicians from all disciplines and faculty training for providers/trainers of CCST. Additionally I provide individualised remediation support for clinicians struggling in the workplace – most often this involves difficulties in terms of communication with patients/families or colleagues. With 20 years of practical experience of communication skills training and service development. I welcome conversations with juniors who wish to discuss any aspect of developing communication skills training for self or their faculty.

Whilst I facilitate sessions covering an entire clinical curriculum: history taking, explanation & planning, shared decision making, motivational interviewing and others, my background in palliative care nursing remains central to my area of interest for communication skills training. I remain passionate about supporting and developing communication skills for compassionate conversations in end of life care. This includes planning and developing training programmes/workshops, facilitating and training faculty/trainers. I welcome conversations about this particular area of communication skills training/developments.

Brief biography:

I am an experienced clinical leader and educator with over 30 years experience working as a palliative care nurse in the UK National Health Service and 20 years as a trainer of communication skills for health professionals.

I have experience in facilitating communication skills training on undergraduate and post graduate medical training programmes and also with experienced clinicians from nursing, midwifery and allied health professions as part of the UK Advanced Communication Skills Training programme (2008-current) and the “If you were to get worse” – Goals of Care Conversations for Clinicians in Acute Care Settings (2021 – current)

My work involves working with individuals and groups in either classroom, clinical practice or online settings, observing practice, facilitating self assessment/evaluation, providing descriptive feedback and opportunities to practice new skills through experiential methods such as role play.

I specialise in providing one to one remediation for clinicians in difficulty.

Additionally, I am a trainer of trainers of communication skills. I have 14 years of providing faculty training at the University of Cambridge School of Medicine and for trainers of communication skills across Europe as a trainer on the International Train the Trainers programme, Madingley, Cambridge UK (2011-2016) and the How to Teach- Experiential Communication Skills Course hosted by EACH/tEACH (2023-current).