Tips for Reinforcing Clinical Skills

Reinforcing the content in CAPC’s clinical training courses is key to ensuring that learners are able to successfully apply the knowledge they have gained. After members of your organization have completed their recommended courses, they will need ongoing opportunities to refine new skills and integrate them into their daily practice. Many of these additional supports can be easily incorporated into standard organizational operations.

Here are some field-tested tactics used by successful organizations that maintain a focus on continued skill-building:

1. Include foundational courses in orientation and annual in-service requirements. CAPC’s Training Assignments make it easy to create and assign customized Learning Pathways.
2. Integrate brief skills reminders into standing team meeting agendas, and refresh learners on where to find relevant CAPC resources on those skills.
3. Pair learners as “buddies”, and encourage them to practice communication skills with each other via brief role-play exercises.
4. Provide opportunities to debrief after completing CAPC courses. Allow learners to share which pearls they found helpful, where they remain uncomfortable or unsure, and what tips or advice they have for their peers. Such discussions can also be built into standing meeting agendas.
5. Encourage learners to revisit the course takeaways and scripts and refresh their skills on a continuous basis, especially when complex patient and caregiver scenarios arise.
6. Use case reviews to reinforce knowledge and generate team discussion. CAPC’s Interprofessional Grand Rounds presents case examples designed to be relevant to the interdisciplinary team and can prompt rich conversation (“What would you do in this scenario?”).