Marie Therese Lussier¹
Claude Richard², François Goulet³, Bernard Martineau⁴, Olivier Jamoulle⁵, Issam Tanoubi⁶ and Jocelyne Bonin⁷
1 Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine Department, Faculty of medicine, Université de Montréal
2 Centre intégré de santé et des services sociaux de Laval
3 Department of FM and EM, Université de Montréal
4 Family Medicine and Emergency medicine Department, Université de Sherbrooke
5 Department of paediatrics, Université de Montreal
6 Department of anesthesiology, Université de Montréal
7 Collège des médecins du Québec

Background:
Effective professional communication is essential to, and inextricably linked with, quality care. Recent transformations in society and healthcare systems have influenced the way in which healthcare providers (HCP) and patients interact. HCP thus need to acquire both technical/clinical knowledge as well as communication/relational skills to cope with the growing complexities of the healthcare environment. Although major improvements in medical school pre-graduate and graduate communication curricula have occurred in recent decades, relatively few communication skills programs are offered in continuing professional development (CPD) activities. 

Summary of work:
The Collège des médecins du Québec (CMQ) is the professional order for Quebec (Canada) physicians. Its Professional Development and Remediation Department’s (PDRD) responsibilities include the development and dispensation of various types of professional development, upgrading and remediation activities for physicians in practice. A health care communication workshop has been offered by the PDRD since 2010. The aim of this e-poster is to present the structure and content of the “Défis et opportunités de la communication professionnelle” workshop as well as the varied pedagogical approaches (theoretical frameworks, lectures, clinical vignettes, video clips, discussions) applied. Specifically, recent workshop adaptations to include experiential learning activities (reflective exercises and role playing) better suited to the mastery of communication skills will be presented as well as the workshop assessments by the participating practicing physicians. 

Results
At the time of the conference, a description of the workshop and its recent updates will be presented. Also, a four-year trend in workshop attendance statistics and participant evaluations will be available. Evaluation forms comprise the following items : 1) Socio-professional data; 2) Format type (virtual or onsite) 3) Quality of teaching materials; 4) Quality of workshop facilitation; 5) CanMeds roles covered; 6) Pre-post workshop comparison of degree of comfort with the stated objectives; 

References (maximum three) 

7) Communication changes to be put in practice; and 8) Perceived areas of professional communication improvement. 

Discussion 

The multimodal pedagogical approaches used in this CPD learning activity seems well suited to the development of professional communication competency. Of all the workshops developed by the CMQ, it is the most popular and the demand is increasing. 

Conclusions 

Through its interactive format and with the help of relevant and realistic scenarios, this workshop leads physicians in practice to use tools and frameworks to support harmonious and effective communication with patients, colleagues and other healthcare professional 

Take-home message 

Educational programs aiming at improving communication competency require both theoretical content and opportunity to practice skills. 

Richard C, Lussier MT (Scientific editors). La communication professionnelle en santé. Second Edition, (2016) Pearson-ERPI, Montreal, 828p. 

Silverman J, Kurts S, Draper J. Skills for communicating with patients. Third Edition (2013). CRC Press, London UK, 305p.