Communicating Unexpected Outcomes (CUO) Disclosure Training Course

This course is designed to improve transparency with patients and families after unexpected clinical outcomes, including those resulting from errors in care. The program will enhance the communication skills of individual providers, healthcare teams and organizations for disclosing clinical errors with honesty, empathy and respect. Participants will also learn to improve their support of other team members in these often-difficult circumstances.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Describe obligations to disclose, and common barriers and solutions
• Outline circumstances when it is best to call for help and where to obtain such help
• Outline the professional accountabilities of individual healthcare providers, interprofessional teams, and organizations for disclosure communications
• Describe who is accountable for disclosure
• Describe the common needs of patients experiencing unexpected clinical outcomes, and how to meet these
• Recognize the importance of communicating factual information on what has happened, including what is being done to prevent further occurrences
• Engage with the patient’s psychological and emotional state, including how to effectively deal with disappointment and anger
• State the importance of genuine apology, and how to appropriately apologize
• Describe when and how to plan for initial disclosure as an interprofessional team and discuss a clinical error in a blame-free way
• Demonstrate ways to effectively communicate with patients with unexpected clinical outcomes, including those when something has gone wrong

Continuing education credits available for this course.