Professional Inservices

NOTE: These programs are appropriate for nurses, CSWs, aides and any other patient-care staff. They may be modified in time and content, per the needs of particular facilities/organizations or staff. Those interested in offering one or more of these programs to their patient-care staff, click here.

Inservice #1
Eliciting Patient (and family) Cooperation:
Understanding Concepts of Shared Decisionmaking (45-60 minutes)
It is not always easy to obtain the cooperation that is often crucial to the outcome of patient care. Even when cooperation is offered, it may be undermined by misunderstandings and/or by family members who disagree with the approach to care. Through lecture and discussions, this program will present concepts of shared decisionmaking, which has been shown to be an effective means of improving patient cooperation, satisfaction and health outcomes. Attention will be given to:

  • What shared decisionmaking means,
  • When it is appropriate,
  • family should, and should not, be involved, and
  • How it can be facilitated by patient-care staff.

Inservice #2
Eliciting Patient (and family) Cooperation:
Communication Techniques (60-90 minutes)
Even as patients expect, and sometimes demand, to be treated as adults who can make their own decisions, they still express the need to feel cared about as well as for. Eliciting cooperation with care plans, therefore, often requires that healthcare professionals satisfy patients’ seemingly contradictory needs: to make their own decisions and, at the same time, to be able to depend on others to do what is right for them. Through discussion and practice, participants will be introduced to the following:

  • Establishing therapeutic relationships: showing they care
  • Educating patients (and their families): building understanding, and
  • Negotiating care plans: building agreement and cooperation

Inservice #3
Building Cultural Competency (60-90 minutes)
In addition to mastering the technical skills necessary for patient-care role they play, today’s healthcare professionals are increasingly called upon to become culturally competent – that is, to be able to understand and respond to each patient’s needs in a manner that is culturally and linguistically appropriate for that patient. This program will help patient-care staff prepare themselves to communicate with culturally diverse patients by:

  • Helping them identify assumptions that influence their interactions with patients,
  • Identifying barriers to cultural competency and strategies for overcoming them,
  • Identifying effective techniques for communicating through interpreters, and by
  • Providing lists of resources for building specific knowledge of minority groups as well as for building general knowledge with respect to culturally appropriate care.