Communication Skills: Concepts and Teaching

Monday, 22 June 2009 - 9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Darius Razavi MD, PhD

Only in English / Ausschließlich auf Englisch


Target Audience:

Clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, oncologists, palliative care and hospice clinicians, medical students, psychology students, physicians in training (Psychiatry trainees/fellows; palliative care trainees/fellows, oncology trainees/fellows). This workshop would also be of interest to researchers of all disciplines who are interested in the issue of communication skills.

Workshop Objectives:

  1. The attendees will become familiar with the concept of communication skills.
  2. The attendees will become familiar with the importance of communication skills, as a component of care, and its relationship to patients anxiety and satisfaction on one hand and to detection of distress on the other hand.
  3. The attendees will become familiar with the teaching techniques, which may improve health care professionals communication skills.
  4. The attendees will participate in role-playing exercises with direct feed-backs and in case discussions.

Workshop Description:

This one day experiential workshop provides an introduction to the issue of improving health care professionals communication skills. Participants will be introduced to the main components of communication skills. Teaching methods designed to improve communication skills will then be described: techniques (learner-centered, skills-focused, practice-oriented) will be discussed. The usefulness of role-plays and immediate feed-backs will be emphasized. Effective manualized training programs that have been tested in randomized controlled studies conducted in Brussels for physicians and nurses will be presented. During the workshop participants will have the opportunity to test the type of role-playing exercises utilized in these studies. In addition, a detailed description of these studies and the content of training sessions tested will be provided.

Recommended Reading

Delvaux N, Merckaert I, Marchal S, et al. Physicians’ communication with a cancer patient and a relative: a randomized study assessing the efficacy of consolidation workshops. Cancer 103:2397-411, 2005

Delvaux N, Razavi D, Marchal S, et al. Effects of a 105 hours psychological training program on attitudes, communication skills and occupational stress in oncology: a randomised study. Br J Cancer 90:106-14, 2004

Libert Y, Merckaert I, Reynaert C, et al. Physicians are different when they learn communication skills: influence of the locus of control. Psychooncology 16:553-62, 2007

Lienard A, Merckaert I, Libert Y, et al. Factors that influence cancer patients' anxiety following a medical consultation: impact of a communication skills training programme for physicians. Ann Oncol 17:1450-8, 2006

Merckaert I, Libert Y, Delvaux N, et al. Factors influencing physicians’ detection of cancer patient distress: Can a communication skills training program improve physicians’ detection? Cancer 104:411-21, 2005

Razavi D, Delvaux N, Marchal S, et al. Does training increase the use of more emotionally laden words by nurses when talking with cancer patients? A randomised study. British Journal of Cancer 87:1-7, 2002

Razavi D, Merckaert I, Marchal S, et al. How to optimize physicians' communication skills in cancer care: results of a randomized study assessing the usefulness of posttraining consolidation workshops. J Clin Oncol 21:3141-9, 2003