Ensuring Effective Communication as Healthcare Professionals

About this course

Communication is the skill healthcare professionals use most often and the one patients judge most directly. It shapes whether patients understand their condition, whether they feel able to raise concerns, whether colleagues act on information, and whether mistakes are caught. Communication failures are a recurring feature of serious incidents, complaints and fitness to practise cases, and communication is consistently one of the most common subjects of NHS complaints.

This course covers core communication skills, patient-centred communication including sensitive conversations and shared decision-making, health literacy, communicating across language, disability and culture, remote communication, teamwork and structured handover, documentation as communication, the standards set by each UK regulator, and how to reflect on and remediate communication concerns. It is designed for all UK healthcare professionals, including those responding to a complaint or regulatory concern.

CPD Value and How to Record It:

This course is designed to provide approximately 2 hours of learning, including reading, the reflection points, the reflective account and the assessment. In the UK, CPD is generally recorded as the time actually spent learning, so you should record the time you genuinely spend, which may be more or less than the estimate.

How the course fits your revalidation or CPD requirements depends on your regulator. For example, the NMC asks nurses, midwives and nursing associates to record 35 hours of CPD over three years, of which at least 20 must be participatory; self-directed online learning such as this course usually counts as individual learning unless you complete it with others. The GMC expects doctors to reflect on CPD for appraisal and revalidation rather than setting a fixed number of hours. The HCPC, GDC, GPhC, GOC, GOsC and GCC each set their own CPD requirements, so check the current rules that apply to you. Always keep your certificate together with your written reflection.

What you will learn

• Explain why communication matters for safety, trust and professionalism.
• Use active listening, empathy and effective verbal and non-verbal skills.
• Check understanding and adapt communication to health literacy and individual needs.
• Handle sensitive conversations and support shared decision-making.
• Communicate safely in teams, using structured handover and escalation.
• Describe regulators' communication standards and how complaints are handled.
• Reflect on and remediate communication concerns.

Who this course is for

All UK healthcare professionals, including those responding to a complaint or concern about communication.

Social workers: this cross-profession course covers principles that apply across health and social care; most worked examples come from healthcare settings.

Course content

10 sections · 2 CPD hours · 15 MCQs

Course facts

CPD value

Approximately 2 CPD hours (estimated learning time, including reflection and assessment)

Format

Self-paced reading with communication scenarios, reflection points and a written reflective account

Standards covered

Communication standards of the GMC, NMC, HCPC, GDC, GPhC, GOC, GOsC and GCC; Accessible Information Standard; NHS complaints arrangements; national guidance on handover, escalation and patient letters

Assessment

15 scenario-based multiple-choice questions; pass mark 12 out of 15 (80%)

Questions about this course