Communicate with HEART training program revamped and ready to go

After a short hiatus over the holiday season, KGH’s Communicate with HEART training program is back with sessions that resume in February and then continue into the summer.

Communicate with HEART is a program created by the Cleveland Clinic. It’s a healthcare-focused model that will provide all KGH employees, along with volunteers and physicians, with tools to help them address patient concerns. Aimed at helping staff better communicate with patients as well as families and coworkers, the program has been revised to better engage trainees.

“We asked everyone who completed the training for feedback and listened to their suggestions on how to improve the program,” says Doug MacInnis, Quality Improvement Specialist. “The material was streamlined so that sessions will now be shorter. We have also revamped some of the content so it more closely aligns with our core concepts of Patient-and Family-Centred Care.”

The training schedule is now listed in the KGH Learning Management System (LMS) and employees can enter and register themselves for a session. KGH employees who require backfill should speak to their supervisor and receive approval before signing up. Anyone who doesn’t require backfill can register themselves right away.

So far, the program has focused training on the Medicine and Mental Health Programs and it’s having some positive impacts in these areas.

“What I like about the HEART program is that it is simple and easy to remember,” says Katherine Stringer, Patient Care Navigator and HEART Training Facilitator. “In a difficult situation sometimes we don’t realize how we are coming across to the person we are speaking with. In those moments we have a choice in how we communicate. The HEART training is excellent in that it gives us the tools to fall back on, because how we handle ourselves can have a huge impact not only for our patients—but also for ourselves.”

So far, KGH has already surpassed its training goal of 500 staff for the current fiscal year as 560 employees have been trained.

“One of our next goals for the program is to ensure we are also focusing on Managers and Directors across the hospital,” says MacInnis. “We want to make sure that they can play a supportive and coaching role as their staff begin to receive training.”