Difficult Conversations workshops provide experiential, multi-professional training to generalist NHS and social care staff on how to have compassionate conversations; covering issues such as a new diagnosis e.g. cancer or dementia, deteriorating health and dying. Training improves patient choice, professionals confidence and skills addressing difficult conversations, knowledge of key legal issues, identification of at-risk patients, and the quality of care-planning and discussions around these common themes. The training is quality assured, endorsed and a nationally scaling programme.
The Difficult Conversations workshop model was designed for primary care use. It has grown and attracted interest from different London Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and workforce groups.
To date, more than 1600 people have attended our workshops, including GPs, acute doctors and acute nurses, palliative care nurses, social workers and assessors, and allied health care professionals.
Evaluation
We evaluated outcomes through questionnaires given to participants before and after each workshop.
