Healthcare Communication Essentials™

What you will learn

This program has four parts. By the end of each part, you should be able to:

Part 1: Foundations of Professional Communication in Healthcare

• Explain how communication affects patient safety, care quality, and trust.
• Use professional verbal, nonverbal, telephone, email, and written communication practices in healthcare settings.
• Apply active listening, questioning, clarification, and understanding-confirmation techniques during interactions.
• Recognize common communication barriers and select appropriate strategies to overcome them.
• Adapt communication approaches for patients, families, coworkers, supervisors, and interdisciplinary teams.
• Demonstrate professionalism, empathy, respect, cultural sensitivity, confidentiality, and boundary awareness in daily practice.

Part 2: Team Communication, SBAR, Handoffs & Care Coordination

• Explain how teamwork and interdisciplinary communication support patient safety and care quality.
• Use the SBAR framework to organize routine, urgent, and escalating clinical communication.
• Apply effective handoff and shift report techniques during transitions of care.
• Recognize communication failures that contribute to patient safety events and service breakdowns.
• Use strategies that improve collaboration, continuity of care, and shared accountability.
• Select practical communication approaches for care coordination across healthcare settings.

Part 3: Patient, Family & Difficult Conversations

• Demonstrate compassionate, patient-centered communication in everyday healthcare interactions.
• Use practical strategies to communicate clearly with patients, families, and caregivers from diverse backgrounds.
• Respond professionally to difficult conversations and emotionally charged situations.
• Apply verbal de-escalation techniques during challenging interactions.
• Maintain trust, empathy, respect, and professional boundaries while communicating under pressure.
• Use communication approaches that support patient understanding, satisfaction, safety, and care outcomes.

Part 4: Documentation, Digital Communication, Professionalism & Communication Excellence

• Document healthcare information accurately, objectively, and professionally.
• Apply best practices for electronic communication and digital professionalism in healthcare settings.
• Protect confidentiality while communicating in person, by phone, and through digital tools.
• Recognize legal and ethical communication responsibilities in routine and high-risk situations.
• Demonstrate professionalism during everyday interactions, difficult moments, and team communication.
• Use effective communication strategies to improve patient safety, collaboration, and quality of care.

Program details

• Self-paced online program for healthcare professionals
• Program length: 10 hours, in four parts
• Includes graded assessments you must pass to complete the program
• Earn a downloadable Certificate of Completion upon successful program completion—ideal for documenting professional development and submitting to your employer for potential reimbursement
• Each certificate has a verification ID that employers can check at nahcp.com/verify

Program length describes the length of the program, not a number of continuing-education credits. Check with your employer or licensing board before submitting a program for credit or reimbursement.