Domain 3 - Key and Enabling Competencies

Communicate Effectively For Patient Safety

Definition: Promoting patient safety through effective healthcare communication

Note: Items highlighted in green are specific to patient safety communications; others may be taught elsewhere in the paediatric curriculum.

1. Health care professionals who demonstrate effective verbal and non-verbal communication abilities to prevent adverse events:

1.1. Show respect and empathy in communication

1.2. Explain investigations, treatments and protocols clearly and adequately to patients

1.3. Convey information with clarity appropriate to each patient (e.g., by using the Calgary-Cambridge model)

1.4. Convey information in structured communications to team members to promote understanding

1.5. Communicate in a manner that is sensitive to health literacy needs

1.6. Employ active listening techniques to understand the needs of others

1.7. Communicate in a manner that is respectful of cultural diversity

1.8. Respect privacy and confidentiality

1.9. Use a variety of communication tools and techniques to enhance and assess understanding on the part of patients and their families

2. Health care professionals who communicate effectively in special high-risk situations to ensure the safety of patients:

2.1. Engage patients or substitute decision-makers in a discussion of risks and benefits of investigations and treatments to obtain informed consent

2.2. Provide informed discharge so that patients know when and where to seek care

2.3. Communicate to others the urgency of a clinical situation

2.4. Employ communication techniques to escalate concerns across authority gradients to match the seriousness of the clinical situation

2.5. Employ appropriate communication approaches in high-risk situations, such as in clinical crises, emotional or distressing situations, and conflict

2.6. Use appropriate communication approaches to provide safe transfers, transitions of care and consultations among providers, including between institutions, and on discharge to community care

2.7. Demonstrate insight into their own communication styles with patients and team members in ordinary, crisis and stressful situations and adjust these styles appropriately to provide safe care

3. Health care professionals who use effective written communications for patient safety:

3.1. Provide appropriately detailed and clear written or electronic entries to the patient health record

3.2. Provide sufficient documentation to facilitate team members’ comprehension of the patient’s history, physical findings, diagnosis and rationale for the diagnosis, treatment and care plan at any time

3.3. Provide patient care orders and prescriptions using safe practices to avoid misinterpretation

3.4. Write patient care orders and prescriptions to convey the appropriate degree of urgency

3.5. Use appropriate, safe written communication approaches in consultation requests and responses, investigative, operative and other reports, and other correspondence

3.6. Identify and promote well-designed patient education material

3.7. Recognize the safety implications of using abbreviations

3.8. Document the rationale for significant deviations from established processes or guidelines

4. Health care professionals who apply communication technologies appropriately and effectively to provide safe patient care:

4.1. Understand the benefits, limitations and professional care responsibilities of using technologies, such as the Electronic Health Record, the Electronic Medical Record, Computerized Professional Order Entry, the telephone, the fax machine, email and other such technologies

4.2. Employ critical thinking tools and structured approaches to communications (e.g., Situation-Background-Assessment-Recommendation [SBAR] and read-back of orders on the telephone) when using technology