Clinician Communication Series: Partnering with Patients to Improve Outcomes and Experience

Type

Self-Paced Online

Dates

8/11/2023 - 8/11/2026

Price

$50

Duration

Less than one hour

This brief collection of digital lessons offers focused skill development for building rapport as well as patient-clinician shared-decision making and in-person communication skills to enhance telemedicine interactions. These practical strategies support the overall patient-clinician relationship and experience for improved health outcomes and patient satisfaction.

Overview

Curriculum

Intended Audience

Faculty

Summary

Communication strategies are at the heart of patient-centered care and influence a patient’s understanding of their health and decisions to be made. In addition, clinicians demonstrating effective communication skills impact the likelihood of successful patient care outcomes. This four-part digital series of modules includes communication approaches and examples that illustrate skills to develop rapport, create shared decision-making, exchange healthcare information for understanding, and establish successful face-to-face as well as telemedicine interactions.

Learning Objectives

After completing the program, learners will be able to:

Recognize strategies for making positive first impressions, building trust and rapport, and putting patients at ease
Apply communication approaches with patients for shared decision-making
Recognize communication strategies to effectively communicate with patients in the telemedicine virtual setting
Identify communication strategies to enhance patient care outcomes via information exchange and patient involvement in care

This online self-paced course is available until August 11, 2026 and contains less than one hour of recorded presentations.

This 30 minute asynchronous course consists of three subject areas that directly influence a patient’s experience:

Technology Requirements

Computer with internet access
Speaker or headset
Web browser

This course is designed for administrators, healthcare professionals, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other healthcare providers.

Sheri Nemec, MS, CPXP

Course Director

Sheri Nemec is a consultation and relationship manager for Quality and serves as a liaison for consulting activity between Mayo Clinic Quality and external healthcare organizations. Prior to this role, Sheri served as Patient Experience Manager for Mayo Clinic. She has worked with Mayo Clinic since 2001 supporting a variety of areas including staff and leadership development, quality, and patient experience. Sheri completed her Master of Counseling Degree at Minnesota State University Mankato. She is a Certified Patient Experience Professional (CPXP) and a Certified Change Management Practitioner. Sheri holds an academic rank of Instructor in Healthcare Administration in the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

Brooke Werneburg, MA, NBC-HWC

Faculty

Brooke Werneburg is the Experience Manager for Mayo Clinic Experience- Training, Education, and Coaching and is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine. Since 2007, Brooke has lead education efforts for clinicians in enhancing communication experiences, trained staff in wellbeing strategies and coached patients towards desired behavior changes at Mayo Clinic. Fostering communication skills in the patient-clinician relationship has allowed Brooke to impact the healthcare experience leading to enhanced overall satisfaction for both clinicians and patients. Brooke holds a Master of Organizational Leadership degree from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota and is a nationally board-certified coach.

Benjamin Houge, MS

Faculty

Ben Houge is a Mayo Clinic Patient Experience Manager providing oversight for the Patient and Visitor Conduct program. Since 2012, Ben has been leading Mayo Clinic Patient Experience efforts. He is a counselor by training and brings extensive communication expertise in the areas of motivational interviewing and cognition-emotional communication skills for pain. Ben led development of Mayo Clinic’s Patient and Visitor Conduct program empowering clinicians to speak up during inappropriate patient behavior situations and partners with key Mayo Clinic stakeholders to support policy and communication efforts around setting boundaries with patients or their caregivers.

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