Communication Skills for Conversations About Serious Illness
This Learning Pathway contains training and tools to help health professionals navigate difficult conversations with patients living with a serious illness.
Discussing Serious News
Learn best practices for having patient-centered conversations about a serious illness diagnosis.
Discussing Prognosis With Patients and Caregivers
Learn how to effectively discuss prognosis with patients and their caregivers.
Clarifying Patient Goals of Care
Learn best practices for building trust, eliciting patient values, and having patient-centered conversations about goals of care.
Goals of Care Conversation: Role Play
In this video, Kacey Boyle, RN, MSPC, leads us through an example of a goals of care conversation between a clinician and a patient.
Conversation Script: Goals of Care
This conversation script provides skills and techniques for conducting goals of care conversations with patients, regardless of the existing clinician-patient relationship.
Leading a Patient and Caregiver Meeting
Learn to effectively lead meetings that help patients and caregivers become aligned around the patient’s goals.
Care Planning
Learn techniques to help patients and their caregivers plan for the future, both during the early stages of a serious illness and as a disease progresses.
Do’s and Don’ts: How to Talk about Palliative Care with your Patients
A quick and easy reference for what to say - and what not to say - when communicating about palliative care.
Talking to Patients About Hospice: Role Play
In this video, Jonathan Fisher, MD, leads us through a mock conversation between a patient whose illness has progressed, and a clinician who explains the benefits of hospice care.
Conversation Script: Talking to Patients About Hospice
This communication script provides techniques for clinicians to foster meaningful conversations about hospice.
Billing and Coding for Advance Care Planning (ACP) Services
MEMBERS ONLY
Requirements, best practices, documentation requirements, and time thresholds for Advance Care Planning (ACP) services.
Prolonged Services Billing
MEMBERS ONLY
Deep dive on prolonged services billing in all care settings.
Empathic Responses Guide
MEMBERS ONLY
This resource provides practical samples of empathic responses to use in conversations with patients and families, as well as template responses to challenging questions. Developed by VitalTalk.
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