“What Matters to Me” workshops

The Brief

In February 2024, SimComm Academy was asked to develop and deliver a series of “What Matters to Me” workshops, tailored separately for clinical and non-clinical staff at a large NHS trust. These workshops aimed to enhance participants’ understanding of patient and colleague concerns and improve communication strategies to better address these issues.

The problem

Staff members at the trust required support in enhancing patient and colleague interactions with the additional aim of reducing complaints that may result from challenging interactions.

Requirements

The workshops were designed to address these challenges through a comprehensive approach:

  1. Identifying behaviour: Enable participants to identify behaviours that may lead to complaints.
  2. Root cause analysis: Help participants understand the underlying causes of these behaviours.
  3. Interaction modifications: Teach modifications in interactions to diffuse or improve outcomes.
  4. Support encouragement: Encourage participants to support others in seeking further help.
  5. Experiential learning: Utilize authentic scenarios from patient experience within the trust with actor role players and expert facilitation.
  6. Delivery modes: Ensure workshops were available both face-to-face and online.

Findings & Discussion:

Analysis of the evaluation forms demonstrated a significant shift in participants’ knowledge and confidence levels:

  • Improving knowledge: Before the workshop 53% of responses expressed no, limited, or neutral knowledge about the issues and behaviours that may impact on patient experiences. After the workshop 94% of responses expressed good or excellent knowledge of this area.
  • Empathy and kindness: Before the workshops, 35% of responses indicated limited, neutral, or no knowledge about the importance of empathy and kindness. After the workshops, 94% of responses indicated good or excellent knowledge.
  • Dealing with complaints: Participants improved their understanding of issues and behaviours that impact patient experience, as indicated by a 41% increase in knowledge and understanding.

Qualitative Feedback:

Participants provided valuable comments on the workshops, emphasizing the effectiveness of interactive scenarios and the relevance to their roles:

  • Understanding Patient Concerns: “A better understanding of dealing with patients’ concerns.”
  • Effective Conversations: “The conversation between patient and GP taught me how to understand situations and treat patients with dignity, kindness, and empathy.”
  • Interactive Scenarios: “The actor scenarios were really good. Being able to give live feedback and see real-time changes was really helpful.”
  • Active Listening: “I found all areas useful, especially active listening and taking a pause.”
  • Inclusive Facilitation: “The facilitator included all participants, summarising and valuing all contributions and reflections.”

Participants were also asked to share one action they would continue or start doing as a result of the workshop to ensure the best patient experiences:

  • “Listening more carefully.”
  • “Being more understanding of the pressures and needs for support of patients, families, and colleagues.”
  • “Actively listening and reflecting back to the patient to check in on what matters to them.”
  • “Understanding how people feel and giving them more time to be open.”

Tangible Conclusions

  1. Enhanced communication skills: The workshops significantly improved participants’ skills in managing patient and colleague interactions, leading to better overall experiences.
  2. Increased empathy: Participants developed a deeper understanding of empathy and its role in effective communication.
  3. Practical techniques: Participants gained confidence in using practical techniques such as active listening, pacing, and taking pauses.
  4. Role awareness: The workshops clarified the importance of recognising role limits and encouraging support seeking.

Overall, the “What Matters to Me” workshops successfully equipped the trust staff with the necessary skills to handle difficult interactions, enhancing both their confidence and the quality of patient care. The report strongly recommends the widespread implementation of these workshops throughout the organisation.

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