Welcome

Welcome to the Tackling the Tough Stuff – Communicating with Patients and Families at end-of-life online training program.

Difficulties surrounding communication are highlighted as challenges in the literature when initiating and delivering end-of-life care, however there is currently limited guidance on how to manage communication at end-of-life between multidisciplinary teams and patients and families. It is recommended that staff involved with dying patients should undertake education in how to communicate effectively with patients and their families around end-of-life plans. However, research suggests clinicians receive little educational preparation on how to care for patients at end-of-life, specifically around communication with patients and their families. Implications of poor communication preparation include lack of multidisciplinary collaboration, missed opportunities of conducting end-of-life discussions with patients due to clinical deterioration, and family distress due to mixed information. Additionally, poor communication has been shown to result in loss of family trust and low levels of family satisfaction.

The Tackling the Tough Stuff – Communicating with Patients and Families at end-of-life online training program aims to provide healthcare students and staff with an opportunity to learn effective communication strategies in a stimulating, interactive, online learning environment.