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24-COMP-437-06.20.24. Promoted Webinar-Nurse Residency Perception Strategies 04. Design- Webinar Imagery_Email Header 1

Building Clinical Confidence Through Communication: A Blueprint for Success With Perception Strategies

July 5, 2024
July 5, 2024

Clear, effective, and transparent communication is critical in healthcare. It is essential to clinical quality and safety, and it also crucial to the professional growth and self-assurance of clinicians throughout their careers. It is vital that leaders have strategies for proactive versus reactive communication. A recent HealthStream webinar shared strategies for creating an environment of empathy and support to improve communication and boost self-assurance while reducing turnover rates.

The webinar was moderated by Raegan Phillips, HealthStream’s Marketing Coordinator, Clinical Programs, and featured presenters:

Mastering the Art of Communication

Billingsley shared the “why” for Perception Strategies and Task to Touch. “My why is the goal to equip staff with practical communication strategies and tools that promote successful conversations and provide the ability to handle conflict,” said Billingsley. She believes that it is important to share the “why” as it provides clarity which can boost communication and trust, creates a strong motivator, and promotes team unity. Leaders need to create a productive and engaged culture and that begins with building confidence through communication.

Creating Engaging Education for Adult Learners

Citing the research of Malcolm Newell on adult learning, Billingsley urged healthcare leaders to remember what adult learners want, specifically:

  • To be in charge of their own learning
  • To leverage their power of experience
  • Help to solve their problems
  • Relevant training
  • To be shown respect

A one size fits all approach does not work for the varying needs of adult learners. In addition, a recent Microsoft survey found that goldfish have slightly longer attention spans (9 seconds) than humans (8 seconds) making short lessons focused on a single topic crucial for adult learners.

Building Resilience with a Learner Mindset

Billingsley went on to share that characteristics such as emotional intelligence, good communication skills, and problem-solving abilities are contributing factors to resiliency – a major topic in post-pandemic healthcare. As communication failures are frequently identified as a significant contributor to workplace failures and conflict, it makes sense that improving communication can build resiliency and improve job satisfaction.

She encouraged leaders to build communication skills by focusing on improving listening skills, focusing on the way forward and selecting only a few reliable communication sources.

Emotional Intelligence and “Aha” Moments

Emotional intelligence is fundamental to good workplace communication and “aha” moments help us to learn from experiences. Billingsley defined emotional intelligence as the ability to understand and manage emotions effectively. It helps us moderate how we come across to our colleagues. An “aha” moment is a moment of sudden clarity, insight, or inspiration that provides insight, recognition, and/or comprehension. “In training, we try to create conditions and use scenarios where “aha” moments are likely to happen,” said Billingsley.

Filling a Gap in Healthcare Communication

The National Institutes of Health conducted a time-motion study amongst nurses and found that nurses spent about three hours of every 12-hour shift communicating. Given the significant amount of time that nurses spend communicating, what are the specific skills that nurses feel they need to improve? When asked, nurses said that they need help navigating conflict, responding to dismissive providers, strategies to address difficult patients, and how to have conversations during which they may be concerned, uncomfortable, or addressing a safety issue. Nurse managers and educators reported needing help with giving and receiving feedback, successful handoffs, clear communication, conflict management, and patient advocacy.

Task to Touch lessons address a variety of healthcare communication topics including effective communication skills for conflict resolution, empathy training to help better manage emotional patients, and models for successful handoffs between clinicians. Lessons include real-life scenarios and instruction on how to improve each interaction.

Task To Touch Video Communication Series

Ficarra announced that beginning in July, HealthStream will be launching a new 15-video Task to Touch video communication series. The series focuses on three main areas.

  • Communication Essentials: This series includes communication best practices, expressing gratitude and apologies, and how to give and receive feedback.
  • Communication with Patients and Families: This series helps improve understanding the difference between sympathy, empathy and compassion, handoffs, delivering bad news, managing difficult family members and emotional patients.
  • Communication Between Colleagues: This series includes content on delivering brief, clear messaging, handling workplace bullies, co-worker conflict, patient advocacy, and strategies for communicating with a dismissive doctor.

Task to Touch has also made a free communication guide available. The two-page guide can serve as the foundation for a communication tutorial.

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