Communication Skills for Surgeons

Mr. Benjamin Patel graduated from Oxford University with a first-class degree in 2018. He has been awarded prizes for achievement from Oxford University, The Association of Surgeons in Training, The British Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons and Healthcare Education England. Deciding to undertake a career in academic surgery, he was ranked in the top 1% of applicants to core surgical training and is a current plastic surgery-themed trainee in Bristol. He has published multiple papers in peer reviewed journals, textbook chapters and presented at scientific conferences internationally. During his Royal College of England Membership examinations, he achieved 97% in the communication domain, compared to an average of 75% Professor Abhay Rane OBE FRCSGlasg(Urol) graduated from Poona University in India in 1983, and trained in urology in the United Kingdom and the United States. He has been a Consultant Urological Surgeon at Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust since 1999. He is Visiting Professor at Canterbury Christchurch University, Kent and holds adjunct chairs at two prestigious US Universities: the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York. An advisor to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) he has also contributed as the national urology representative to the NICE Interventional Procedures Advisory Committee. A former Council member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS), he represented BAUS at the International Member Committee of the American Urological Association for a decade. He is current Surgical Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and a Director of the Endourology Society. Professor Rane was appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the 2014 Honours List for services to laparoscopic surgery.

Part I: Key concepts in surgical communication.- The components of communication.- The patient-surgeon relationship.- Teamwork in surgery.- The trainer-trainee relationship.- Part II: Scenarios and frameworks: Patient-surgeon.- Information gathering and diagnostics.- Shared decision-making and consent.- Breaking bad news.- Escalation status and palliative care.- Navigating patient emotions.- Communication with young people.- Communication with patients with learning disabilities.- Part III: Scenarios and frameworks: Teamwork and teaching.- Referrals and requests.- Communicating in theatre.- Responding to significant events.- Surgical training and feedback.- Handover and presenting patients.- Reflective practice.- Part IV: Communication using technology.- Communication in telehealth.- Communicating with social media.