Communicating Unexpected Outcomes - for Clinicians

About the Communicating Unexpected Outcomes – for Clinicians program

Communicating Unexpected Outcomes – for Clinician is a half-day workshop designed to improve transparency with patients and families after unexpected clinical outcomes, including those resulting from errors in care. Offered on-site at healthcare institutions, the program will enhance the communication skills of individual providers, healthcare teams and organizations for disclosing clinical errors with honesty, empathy and respect. Participants will also learn to improve their support of other team members in these often-difficult circumstances.

Strengths of the Program

• Improved transparency and communications
• Enhanced communication skills 
• Effective support for team members faced with these circumstances

Topics Covered

• The importance of timely and compassionate disclosure 
• Individual, team and organization accountability and support
• Patient-centered disclosure

Duration 

Four hours. A half day workshop offered on-site in healthcare institutions.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Describe obligations to disclose, and common barriers and solutions
• Outline circumstances when it is best to call for help and where to obtain such help
• Outline the professional accountabilities of individual healthcare providers, healthcare interprofessional teams, and organizations for disclosure communications
• Describe who is accountable for disclosure 
• Describe the common needs of patients experiencing unexpected clinical outcomes, and how to meet these 
• Recognize the importance of communicating factual information on what has happened, including what is being done to prevent further occurrences 
• Engage with the patient’s psychological and emotional state, including how to effectively deal with disappointment and anger 
• State the importance of genuine apology, and how to appropriately apologize
• Describe when and how to plan for initial disclosure as an interprofessional team and discuss a clinical error in a blame-free way 
• Demonstrate ways to effectively communicate with patients with unexpected clinical outcomes, including those when something has gone wrong 
• Describe at least 3 principles for documentation of disclosure
• Summarize at least 2 ways to emotionally support themselves as a provider and also help their colleagues and team 
• Develop an institutional plan for the workplace

In addition to the Clinician Masterclass, we offer a course tailored for leaders; the Communicating Unexpected Outcomes – Leader Masterclass.

For more information, please don’t hesitate to email us at info@saegissolutions.ca or call us at 1-833-435-9979.

Additional Resources

• Accreditation Details