Module 9 - Effective Methods For Teaching Consultation Skills

Effective Methods For Teaching Consultation Skills
CLICK HERE FOR MODULE OVERVIEW

Mainly for educators, clinical supervisors and trainers, this module explores the tried and tested techniques that make for effective consultation skills education. From engaging your participants and developing effective feedback, through to creating really effective skills rehearsals and role plays, educators will find resources to support training in all environments.

Table of Contents

• _{Module 9-1 - Helping Participants Get On Board With Consultation Skills Education; Building Basic Concepts}
• _{Module 9-2 - How Can Educators Unleash The Awesome Power Of Generalist Skills?}
• _{Module 9-3 - Should We Jump In At The Deep End? Experiential Learning For Listening Skills}
  
• _{Module 9-4 - Am I Nearly There? Skills For Receiving And Giving Effective Feedback}
• _{Module 9-5 - Practice Makes Permanent, Only Feedback Makes Perfect; Making Skills Rehearsals Effective}
  
• _{Module 9-6 - Can We Learn To Love Role Play?}
• _{Module 9-7 - Is It Cheating To Look Things Up? Open Book Technique For Speeding Up Learning}
  
• _{Module 9-8 - Can We Solve Problems Without Seeing A Video? Using Video Reconstruction}
  
• _{Module 9-9 - Removing Barriers To Achievement Ensuring Success For Every Participant In Training}

Full List of Podcasts
Listen to each Podcast in the playlist, and find supported written guidance below

Supporting Guidance (PDF)

Module 9-1 - Helping Participants Get On Board With Consultation Skills Education; Building Basic Concepts
Summarising is a useful skill, which provides a sort of ‘receipt’ to the patient, demonstrating that what they said has been heard and understood. Summarising also acts as a ‘punctuation’ point in the consultation...
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Module 9-2 - How Can Educators Unleash The Awesome Power Of Generalist Skills?
Clinicians work hard in the first part of the consultation to gather information and develop an understanding of their patient’s problem. Listening skills are crucial to the effective gathering of information (see talc skills for effective information gathering)...
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Module 9-3 - Should We Jump In At The Deep End? Experiential Learning For Listening Skills
We can see from the quotation on the cover that the idea of information overload is nothing new. Every age tends to think that humans are bombarded by too much information. In 1956 George Miller asserted that humans can only hold seven (plus or minus two) items in their short-term memory at a time. Some psychologists have reduced this to four items! Perhaps this partly explains why clinicians often worry about giving patients information, because they believe that patients “don’t remember what they are told” or “only remember three things”. These concerns may mean that clinicians try to limit the amount of information they share with patients...
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Module 9-4 - Am I Nearly There? Skills For Receiving And Giving Effective Feedback
Explanation and planning skills, are crucial for effective consultations, and yet remain the ‘Cinderella subject’ in consultation skills teaching, with less time devoted to the skills needed. This is often because in teaching, just as in consultations, a lot of time is spent concentrating on information gathering and less on explanations and planning. Indeed, failure to achieve a suitable management plan is a very common cause of examination failure...
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Module 9-5 - Practice Makes Permanent, Only Feedback Makes Perfect; Making Skills Rehearsals Effective
As clinicians, we can be unaware of how our language affects the consultation. Words can have a beneficial ‘placebo’ effect and can also have harmful ‘nocebo’ effects. Every clinician will have had a good experience of a patient saying “I feel so much better now”, when all that has happened is a conversation, with no pills, referrals or treatments being involved...
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Module 9-6 - Can We Learn To Love Role Play?
The skillset needed to ‘Break Bad News’ builds on all the skills of the consultation, including those required for beginning consultations effectively, including preparation and planning and responding to the patient with active listening and empathy. Having good explanation skills and familiarity with collaborating with patients to make personalised care plans will also help (see Reference 1, chapter 8). However, the clinician must also prepare themselves psychologically, to be able to use the skillset of Breaking Bad News effectively... 
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Module 9-7 - Is It Cheating To Look Things Up? Open Book Technique For Speeding Up Learning
The explanation and planning parts of the consultation often receive less attention and time than the information gathering elements. Listening effectively to find out about the patient’s problems and getting enough information to make a diagnosis, is rightly given very high priority by clinicians. The goal in planning care should be one of collaborating with patients, to create a management plan that is medically appropriate and feasible for the patient...
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Module 9-8 - Can We Solve Problems Without Seeing A Video? Using Video Reconstruction
Many patients bring life problems to consultations, all mixed up with their illnesses. Understanding the physical, psychological and social dimensions to a problem assists a holistic understanding, yet clinicians may feel they can do little to help the ‘non-medical’ aspects of the patient’s experience. Clinicians who do attempt this can end up feeling overburdened, while those who do not attempt to deal with the non-medical aspects, can feel frustrated by the lack of progress in their patient’s life... 
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Module 9-9 - Removing Barriers To Achievement Ensuring Success For Every Participant In Training
Many patients bring life problems to consultations, all mixed up with their illnesses. Understanding the physical, psychological and social dimensions to a problem assists a holistic understanding, yet clinicians may feel they can do little to help the ‘non-medical’ aspects of the patient’s experience. Clinicians who do attempt this can end up feeling overburdened, while those who do not attempt to deal with the non-medical aspects, can feel frustrated by the lack of progress in their patient’s life... 
READ MORE