The Conversation Lab continues to further the call to put communication skills training at the forefront of the agenda within UHN.
Palliative Care has been on site routinely at TRI-UC since July 2024 as part of a new initiative to address the increasing patient complexity for their admitted patients with advancing serious illness. Having recognized the impact this was making with patients, especially around navigating uncertainty and goals of care discussions, the TRI-UC education team asked us to supplement their core interprofessional learning curriculum to include a focus on communicating in the face of uncertainty for their patient-facing staff.
In response, Drs. Max Charles and Warren Lewin worked with a multidisciplinary team to develop a novel curriculum adapted from The Conversation Lab’s resources, creating a scalable and tailored approach for the multidisciplinary rehab teams.
The Professional Development (PD) Day series, mandatory training for the brain injury program at TRI-UC, focused on enhancing communication skills for nursing and allied healthcare professionals, particularly in the context of serious illness conversations. It highlighted how every team member can contribute on a daily basis to ensuring that patients and families have the information they need to make decisions, helping them stay in control of their care while living with serious illness—rather than relying on a family meeting or a post-discharge specialist follow-up appointment to fill information gaps.
With 166 participants, the 3hr workshop, delivered 8 times in May/June 2025, received overwhelmingly positive feedback. A significant majority strongly agreed that the session increased their confidence in sharing serious news and responding to emotional situations. Participants also felt that the workshop provided practical skills they could immediately apply in their own clinical practice, reinforcing the importance of clear and empathetic communication such as the value of silence, active listening, and the use of structured conversation guides.
The workshops were attended by a diverse group of attendees, most having over ten years of experience, and represented various disciplines such as nursing, occupational and physical therapy, speech language pathology, psychology, and social work. Despite varying levels of prior communication training, the majority expressed that the workshop was both relevant and impactful to caring for an increasingly more ill population in rehab. Many participants recommended making the training mandatory for all frontline clinicians, underscoring its perceived value in enhancing patient care and professional development.
Thank you to Drs. Nadine Gebara, Haley Draper, Jalal Ebrahim, and Arielle Berger for helping co-deliver the curriculum to such great feedback, and a special thank you to both Giselle Gardonyi, Education Specialist in our Department for helping to design and for coordinating this multi-day teaching series, and Raisa Kassam, Interprofessional Educator at TRI-UC for championing this work.
The Conversation Lab is excited to further adapt and deliver this ongoing, important peer-reviewed work across UHN, with 8 additional workshops being planned for early fall at TRI-UC alone.
Interested in helping us teach or collaborating with our team? Contact warren.lewin@uhn.ca to learn more.