Communication skills

Communication skills are essential in all aspects of life. A very few people appear to be naturally good communicators, but the majority need to work to achieve and maintain it.

In dentistry, we need to communicate effectively with patients, carers and the public, being sensitive to the verbal and non-verbal cues we receive and give out. We also communicate regularly with our professional colleagues and regulatory bodies.

We have to give "bad news" empathically, and be able to support the people we give it to.

Technology has increased the ways we can communicate, with email, video consultations, and texts in addition to traditional phone calls and face-to-face conversations.

This module takes you through the fundamentals, and how to successfully implement the latest technologies.

Participant Feedback Review: Communication Skills Module

Participants provided highly positive feedback about the "Communication Skills" module, particularly praising its practical value, comprehensive coverage, and relevance to daily dental practice.

Key Strengths

Participants highlighted several strengths of the course, including:

Clear, Concise, and Informative Content: The material was described as "excellent," "very informative," and presented in a way that was easy to understand and retain. One participant noted the content was "concise and informative," while another praised it for being "simple and effective."
Practical and Clinically Relevant: The course effectively addressed essential communication scenarios encountered in dental settings, such as communicating effectively with deaf or hard of hearing patients, breaking bad news empathetically, and managing remote consultations. Comments included, "brilliant course, this course shows how important it is to enhance our skills not only from a clinical point of view," and "very interesting and useful module especially now when phone triage is so often the first step in dental treatment."
Effective Use of Multimedia: Participants valued the inclusion of videos, particularly the one demonstrating communication challenges faced by patients with mild hearing loss. One learner mentioned specifically, "the video for hearing loss was helpful especially to reinforce what is 'normal' for someone with mild hearing loss."
Relevance to Professional Practice: Many learners appreciated the direct applicability to their everyday professional activities. Feedback included, "overall, I found this course on communication skills to be incredibly practical and valuable," and "it is really essential and provides knowledge, as well as practical skills."

Specific Positive Comments

"Excellent material to learn and understand how to be effective at communication in dental practices."
"A good course that gave me more insight into dealing with communication, especially with patients who have hearing loss."
"Great course, concise and informative."
"This course was really helpful in enhancing the communication skills."
"Overall, I found this course on communication skills to be incredibly practical and valuable. It covered a wide range of scenarios, from everyday patient interactions to more complex situations like breaking bad news and conducting remote consultations."

Suggestions for Improvement

Although feedback was overwhelmingly positive, some participants suggested minor improvements:

A few learners indicated that the course could be made more engaging, with one participant noting it was "not as engaging as some of the other modules."
There was also a suggestion to remove or reconsider certain sections viewed as "unnecessary and irrelevant," notably the "makeup section."

Closed-Question Feedback Summary

Met learning objectives: 98.5% strongly agree/agree
Good quality: 98.5% strongly agree/agree
Useful & relevant: 95.6% strongly agree/agree
Engaging: 95.6% strongly agree/agree
Pitched at right level: 96.2% strongly agree/agree

These statistics strongly confirm participants’ satisfaction with the module’s overall quality and value.

Overall Impression

Participants viewed the "Communication Skills" module as highly beneficial, informative, and practical. It successfully enhanced their confidence in managing various communication scenarios within dental practice and underscored the importance of effective communication skills in providing quality patient care.

Script container

Aim
The aim of the learning and teaching materials in this Dentaljuce module is to allow learners to develop their communication skills, in line with their identified personal learning requirements.

Course objective

to enhance the communication skills of members of the dental team.

Anticipated learning outcomes:

The learner will, with respect to the components that he or she has elected to study as listed below:

Know how to recognise, and respond to the different communication styles.
Understand the differences between verbal and non-verbal communications.
Know the wide range of communication skills required of dental professionals.
Have a clear understanding of how to effectively use email, telephone calls and conduct video-consultations.
Have a clear understanding of how to communicate with deaf or hard of hearing patients.
Know how to break bad news.
Through achieving these outcomes, provide an improved level of service to their patients.

GDC Development Outcomes
This CPD will support the learner in meeting the following GDC Development Outcome(s): A, D.

Next: Scope of communication

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