Bangalore Baptist Hospital organised the Master trainer’s workshop on healthcare communication recently at their Hebbal premises. The workshop was a great success and was attended by 38 healthcare professionals from more than 15 hospitals across India. This was the fourth national workshop that was conducted in Bangalore. Earlier workshops have been conducted in New Delhi, Bangalore and Kochi.
So far around 125 master trainers have been trained. The most striking feature of this programme was that the sessions were taken by doctors who have a ‘hands on’ experience and videos and roleplays were designed based on real life experiences.
‘Effective communication’ forms the foundation on which good clinical care is established. 70 per cent of the errors in a hospital happen because of communication gaps. Many studies also show that patients get well faster if they are treated by doctors who are effective communicators.
But in India, communication skills are neither taught nor assessed during their professional training. Bangalore Baptist Hospital has developed training modules for training of health care professionals. The training addressed issues like “How To Have Effective Communication In Patient-Doctor Interview”, “How To Be A Good Listener”, “Non Verbal Communication”, “How To Manage Patient Expectations”, “Different Personality Types”, “Breaking Bad News”, “How To Disclose Medical Errors”, “How To Develop Assertive Communication Styles” and “Handling An Aggressive Patient”.
In this workshop, training was conducted with the help of videos, group discussions, role play and role modelling. To spread this knowledge, Bangalore Baptist Hospital has joined hands with Consortium of Accredited Hospitals of India to start workshops at national levels to “Train the Master Trainer”. National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Health Care Providers has endorsed this training.
Faculty included: Dr Ajay Shetty, Consultant Urologist, Sakhra World Hospital; Dr Badari Datta, Consultant ENT Surgeon & Head of Quality, Bangalore Baptist Hospital; Dr Kingsley R Gnanadurai, Consultant Physician, Bangalore Baptist Hospital; Dr Rajnish Samal: Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist, Bangalore Baptist Hospital; Dr Deepak Abraham, Professor of Surgery, CMC, Vellore.