Organizational Culture Library

Learning Objectives

• Understand what serious illness communication is and where it fits within the advance care planning continuum
• Learn some principles of good communication and suggested language that goes with them
• Feel motivated to continue to learn and integrate serious illness conversations into the care you provide.

Course Description

This course uses a well-tested and widely adopted tool, the Serious Illness Conversation Guide, which helps clinicians to have more, better, and earlier conversations with their seriously ill patients with just a little practice. By providing a script that includes patient-tested language and incorporates communication best practices, instead of worrying about what to say next, clinicians will be able to turn their attention to hearing and responding to their patient. The Guide has been tested extensively with clinicians from many medical and surgical specialties. Without the Guide, conversations often center on medical options and life-sustaining treatment and tend to be longer and less focused. Using the open-ended questions in the Guide, clinicians spend less time talking, more time listening, and they are much more likely to discuss the patient’s prognosis, information preferences, values, and goals.

Author Information

Course development guided by the expertise of Erik Fromme.