About the The Art of Honest Conversation programme
Honest Conversations
Most would agree that regular, constructive and developmental feedback to colleagues is a healthy part of the culture of any business or organisation. Yet sometimes feedback needs to be more direct especially when challenging undesirable or simply unacceptable behaviours of colleagues. Although these conversations are at times needed, they are continuously at risk of getting postponed or deemed as just too difficult and therefore avoided altogether.
The consequences in healthcare settings of not addressing these are many, ranging from poor relationships or unhelpful team dynamics, to serious issues around quality of care or even issues of malpractice not being addressed.
Recognising that we have a professional responsibility to address unacceptable behaviours or behaviours that leave you questioning underlying attitudes, NHS England, Workforce, Training and Education directorate have invested in developing this session on holding ‘honest conversations’. Initially adapted for the medical training environment, its intention is to support colleagues in the preparation and delivery of more direct conversations that are designed to halt or correct unacceptable behaviours and yet to do so in line with the values of compassionate organisations. By holding such conversations, we hope that in enabling the personal change that is needed, team working can be optimised and support the delivery of the very highest quality of healthcare.
More information
Background
Pilot courses on the ‘The Art of Honest Conversation’, supported for Continuing Professional Development by the Royal College of Physicians, were held for postgraduate doctors in training and medical educators in the East Midlands. These were enthusiastically received and led to the development of this learning module. It is relevant for postgraduate graduate doctors in training (who themselves may on occasions need to hold such conversations with their peers), medical educators and may also have a place in wider health care settings.
Primary audience
The target audience are postgraduate doctors and dentists in training and their educators. The model however is transferrable into nursing and allied health professionals too.
Meet the team
Acknowledgements
Author:
Dave Thornton, Executive Coach, Dave Thornton Ltd
Editors:
Mr Roger Kunkler, Associate Postgraduate Dean, NHS England Midlands and Consultant Urological Surgeon
Dr Nicky Hames, Deputy Director of Medical Education and Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust
Video production: Ben Thomas and Sarah Boote, The OtherCompany Ltd. We are also grateful to them for their skill in assisting with the engagement of our postgraduate doctors in training and educators during the filming of the scenarios.
Contributor:
Mr Hywel Satherley, Consultant Urological Surgeon, Derby and Burton University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
We are grateful to our postgraduate doctors in training and medical educators across the East Midlands for their enthusiastic engagement with this project.
We are grateful to Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust for the use of their simulation suite for scenario filming.
NHSE TEL team members
Karole Smith, Programme Manager – Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
Steven Thompson, Senior Project Manager – Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
Angelina Montinaro, Lead Learning Designer – Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
Abigail Lingford, Graphic Designer – Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
How to access
To access any elfh programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view The Art of Honest Conversation programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.
If you already have an account with elfh, then you can enrol on to the The Art of Honest Conversation programme by logging in to the Learning Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My e-Learning section.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.
To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the The Art of Honest Conversation programme, please contact elfh directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
More information
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