Patient Communication & Consultation Support
The skill that decides whether a person comes back — taught deliberately.
Who this is for
Anyone whose work involves talking to patients: reception, therapy assistants, consultation support, and therapists who are excellent with their hands and awkward with their words.
What you will actually be able to do
- Take a structured history without it feeling like an interrogation
- Explain a plan so that a person can repeat it back to their family
- Handle the difficult conversations: cost, doubt, complaint, bad news
- Understand consent properly rather than as a signature
Modules
Listening
The part most people believe they are already good at.
History taking
Structured, complete, and humane.
Explaining
Plain language, teach-back, and checking rather than assuming.
Difficult conversations
Money, doubt, complaint, and saying no.
Consent and confidentiality
What it means and what it requires.
Day-by-day curriculum
Published in full, because you should know what you are buying before you pay for it.
Days 1–2
Listening
Open questions, silence, and not interrupting. Recorded role-play played back — most participants discover they interrupt within eleven seconds.
Days 3–5
Structured history taking
Presenting concern, duration, aggravating and relieving factors, prior treatment, medication, expectations. Practised until it flows as conversation rather than a form.
Days 6–7
Explaining findings
Plain language without condescension. The teach-back method: asking the person to explain it back, which is the only reliable way to know they understood.
Days 8–9
Money conversations
Quoting a price without apology and without pressure. Explaining why an assessment is charged separately. Handling 'can you give a discount' honestly.
Days 10–11
Difficult conversations
Telling someone you cannot help them. Handling a complaint. Responding to a person who wants a guarantee. Saying no to a request outside scope.
Day 12
Consent and confidentiality
What informed consent actually requires, why a signature is not the same as consent, and the confidentiality obligations that apply to everyone in the building.
Day 13
Live observation
Observing real consultations at the centre, with patient permission, and structured debriefing afterwards.
Day 14
Assessment
Two assessed role-plays with trained actors: one full history, one difficult conversation. Marked against a published rubric.
Practical exercises
- Recorded and reviewed listening exercises
- Full history taking, repeated to fluency
- Teach-back practice
- Difficult conversation role-plays with actors
Assignments
- Three recorded role-plays with written self-critique
- A written explanation of one care plan in plain language, at two reading levels
How the certificate is earned
Two assessed role-plays with trained actors, marked against a published rubric, plus written work
Pass requirement
60% overall, with at least 80% attendance
Weighting
- History-taking role-play (35%)
- Difficult conversation role-play (35%)
- Written work (30%)
Certificate of Completion
Learning outcomes
- Take a complete structured history conversationally
- Explain findings and plans in language a person can repeat
- Handle money, doubt and complaint without defensiveness
- Apply consent and confidentiality obligations correctly
Career opportunities
- Front office and patient coordination in clinics and wellness centres
- Consultation support roles
- Any patient-facing position in healthcare administration
Apply for Patient Communication & Consultation Support
A fifteen-minute counselling call first, with no fee and no obligation. If this is the wrong programme for you, that is what we will say.