Dear Colleague,

It is my pleasure to invite you to an upcoming course, Difficult Conversations in Healthcare: Pedagogy and Practice, which will be offered twice in 2010—on Saturday, January 9, 2010 and on Saturday, June 12, 2010 at Children’s Hospital Boston at Waltham in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.

Difficult Conversations in Healthcare: Pedagogy and Practice is a 1-day faculty development course designed for physicians in all specialties, residency and clerkship directors, medical education leaders, medical educators, and multidisciplinary healthcare professionals (social workers, psychologists, and others) interested in and/or involved in teaching interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, relationship-centered care, patient-practitioner relationships and related topics.

The course offers the opportunity to learn about an innovative, collaborative relational learning model, known as the Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills (PERCS). The Institute for Professionalism & Ethical Practice (IPEP) at Children’s Hospital Boston developed this model for teaching and enhancing communication skills and relational capacities. We anticipate participants will:

• Understand the philosophy and components of relational learning
• Develop a range of teaching and facilitation skills appropriate to teaching about communication and relationships in health care
• Develop strategies to promote and implement relational teaching and learning within their home institutions

Participants will experience and learn about the following educational strategies and pedagogy:

• The PERCS model of realistic enactments with professional actors, collaborative learning, and reflection and feedback
• The use of narratives
• Videotape and discussion
• Interactive didactic presentation
• Appreciative inquiry
• Small group team-based learning
• Large group discussion
• Facilitated reflections

Difficult Conversations in Healthcare provides teaching and learning strategies for the communication skills and professionalism competencies required by many regulatory organizations including the ACGME, LCME, JCAHO, and specialty and licensing boards. The course is also offered as a pre-course for The Harvard Macy Institute’s Program for Educators in Health Professions and the Program for Leading Innovations in Health Care & Education.

For more information about the course and faculty, and to register online, please visit the January 9, 2010 and the June 12, 2010 course pages.

Spaces are limited. If you have questions about the course, please feel free to contact Allyson Wall, Course Coordinator, at 617-355-5021 or Allyson.Wall@childrens.harvard.edu.

We hope to see you in January or June!

Sincerely,
Elizabeth A. Rider, MSW, MD, FAAP
Course Director

P.S. Please feel free to forward this message to friends or colleagues who might like to learn more about this course.

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