Mastering Tough Conversations: Delivering Serious News 2023

Wednesday, April 26, 2023, 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Lindeman FG, Seattle, WA

Many Americans with serious illness receive health care that is mismatched with their goals and priorities, resulting in inappropriate interventions and costs. The Institute of Medicine, after reviewing all the existing data, concluded in the 2015 report Dying in America, that communication training was a critical--and missing--element in improving the experience of patients with serious illness and their families.

Palliative care specialists have been trained in these communication skills, however there is an existing shortfall of 18,000 clinicians who are trained in palliative care clinical skills in the US to provide care for inpatients--and the most important palliative care skill is communication.  Clinicians who work with serious illness are well positioned to address this gap with a skill set that will improve confidence in conducting these conversations about goals of care with seriously ill patients and their families.

The communication skills materials featured in this half day course are derived from VitalTalk (www.vitaltalk.org). The training is based on the needs and specialties of the clinicians participating and will teach skills including conversations around prognosis, early goals of care conversations, late goals of care conversations, conflict management, conducting family conferences and more.

1. Identify an appropriate framework for improving your communication skills to confidently address serious illness conversations.
2. Assess opportunities to use tools and talking maps and develop a strategy to use them in specific tough conversations with patients or surrogates.
3. Recognize patient cues that are critical for establishing trust and connecting patient values to a medical action plan.

This activity is only open to Virginia Mason Franciscan Health clinicians. 

Register today: Enrollment is limited to 15 participants.

The Virginia Mason Medical Center is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Virginia Mason Medical Center designates this live activity for a maximum of 3.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ (3.25 hours), Non-Physician Attendance (3.25 hours)

Mitigation of Relevant Financial Relationships

Virginia Mason Medical Center adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity, including faculty, planners, reviewers or others are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (commercial interests). All relevant conflicts of interest have been mitigated prior to the commencement of the activity.

Wednesday, April 26, 2023