Providing high quality and compassionate medical care to seriously ill patients and their families requires clinicians to communicate medical information clearly, respond to emotion with empathy, effectively elicit patients values and develop clear and goal concordant care plans. The Institute of Medicine, concluded in 2015 report Dying in America that communication training was a critical- and missing- element to improving the experience of patients with serious illness and their families. In addition, many clinicians who work with patients with serious illness report feeling ill equipped to have these important conversations.

VitalTalk’s Mastering Tough Conversations is a communication training for clinicians who work with patients and families with serious illness.  VitalTalk is an international program that relies on evidence-based methods and educational theory to effectively teach clinicians communication skills. Clinicians who have completed this training master skills that make them feel more prepared to have these difficult conversations. In addition, these skillful conversations make a difference to patients and their families.

This half-day communication training teaches clinicians a framework and skills to guide goals of care conversations. After an introduction to a framework and several important skills, there is deliberate time spent practicing the learned communication skills with actors in small groups.