Health care professionals’ experience of participating in a communication course in an orthopaedic department

Abstract

Summary Aim To demonstrate how health care professionals experienced participating in a communication skills training course and to what extent they felt that the training had influenced their ability to communicate with patients and colleagues. Method After having attended a 3day communication skills training course focused on patient centeredness and communication with colleagues, health care professionals from an orthopedic department participated in focus group interviews. The analysis was undertaken by indexing the transcripts, focusing on what had made the greatest impression during training. The extracted data were entered into a matrix. Results Following the training, nurses, nursing assistants, medical secretaries and managers experienced more control over the patient interview, increased confidence in communication, better intercollegiate understanding and more focus on patient-oriented communication. The doctors had an overall negative experience of participating in the training, but still experienced positive changes in their communication. Conclusion An enriched and more confident communication with patients and colleagues was the most common experience, although this depended on the informants' professional background. Implications Interprofessional communication skills training courses for health care professionals are recommended. Specially designed training for doctors might be necessary, but would greatly diminish the advantages of mixed classes.