Communication, Consent and Disclosure Program

Many complaints about health practitioners are not, at heart, about clinical skill. They are about how a patient felt: not listened to, not told about a risk, surprised by a bill, brushed off after something went wrong, or treated with less respect than they expected. Those experiences often turn an unwanted outcome into a formal complaint, and a formal complaint into a notification.

Every National Board code treats communication, consent and respect as core duties, and the Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights sets out what patients can expect. This program turns those duties into practical techniques: what to say, what to write, and what to do when the conversation is hard.

• Practitioners who have received a complaint or notification about communication, rudeness, consent, fees, discrimination or the handling of an adverse event.
• Practitioners asked by a Board or employer to complete education in communication or consent.
• Proceduralists, surgeons, dentists, cosmetic practitioners and others who obtain consent for interventions with significant risks or costs.
• Practitioners who work with interpreters, people with disability, children and young people, older people or culturally diverse communities.
• Senior clinicians and managers who lead open disclosure meetings or support colleagues after an adverse event.

If your concern is mainly about cultural safety for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients, add Cultural Safety in Practice, which is covered on the cultural safety concern page.

The patient decides what matters

Whether you are sharing a diagnosis, disclosing a risk or quoting a fee, the test is what this patient needs to know to make their own decision, not what you would want to know in their place.

If it is not understood, it has not been communicated

A consent form signed without understanding, a discharge plan the family cannot repeat back, or an apology that sounds like a defence all fail the same test. Teach-back, interpreters and plain language are how you check.

The record carries the conversation

When a dispute arises months later, the note is what remains. Each course shows how to record what was explained, asked and decided in a few clear lines, so the record supports both the patient and you.

Communication skills are hard to show on paper, so each course gives you something concrete:

• a reflective account on a difficult conversation, a patient group you find challenging and a communication goal for your CPD plan;
• a phrase table for opening, teach-back, safety-netting, empathy, bad news, declining and de-escalation, plus an interpreter checklist;
• worked examples of consent notes and itemised estimates, and a consent quick-reference checklist;
• open disclosure scripts, a first-hours checklist and a formal meeting checklist;
• a respect checklist for each stage of an encounter, and examples of stigmatising record entries rewritten in objective, person-first language;
• four certificates of completion.

After a communication concern, patient feedback collected over time, peer observation and changes to your consent forms or estimate templates are useful evidence of change. The Insight, Reflection and Remediation Program shows how to organise them, and the communication and consent concern page explains how these notifications are handled.

As a program, the four courses cost A$657, which is 25% less than buying each one separately. The saving is applied in the cart. To add other courses, such as cultural safety or professional boundaries, consider multi-buy instead: five courses attract 10% off.