Honing communication skills in the workplace
- Ray Sutton
Ray Sutton founded Actor/Educators Inc, a company which supplies actors to simulate clients and patients for communication skills seminars, eight years ago. The aim is to steer particular scenarios towards achieving education and training objectives set by those participating. He also offers a consultancy service, contributing to course/project development and monitoring in the communication skills field.
Abstract
LAST year, the Shuttleworth Veterinary Group, in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, ran a workshop in which some of the client communication issues that were identified by the practice team as causing particular difficulties were explored via a series of simulated scenarios. The workshop was led by Ray Sutton, who has previously worked with the Veterinary Defence Society and contributed to the University of Liverpool's communications skills programme. Here he discusses the day's experiences and describes how the problems of an overly talkative client, an angry client and a letter of complaint were approached, the issues that this process threw up, and some of the conclusions reached.
- British Veterinary Association. All rights reserved.
