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Communication in Healthcare: Skills & Training Guides

How healthcare teams build communication skills — patient and family conversations, teach-back, handoffs, nonverbal cues, and practice-based training that reduces complaints, errors, and burnout.

All articlesDe-escalationHealthcare communicationOnboarding & retentionTraining programs
A dentist reviewing an intraoral image with a patient chairside during a treatment discussionHealthcare communication

Dental Case Acceptance: The 3 Conversations That Decide It

Dental case acceptance lives or dies in three conversations — the chairside why, the money talk, the follow-up. How to measure yours and fix each one.

Jul 21, 2026 · 5 min read

A clinician delivering serious news to a patient and family memberHealthcare communication

SPIKES protocol: the six steps and the words to say

The SPIKES protocol explained: what the six steps mean, the words that work at each one, and how to train a team to deliver bad news without practicing on real families.

Jul 14, 2026 · 7 min read

Two clinicians practicing a patient conversation in a role-playHealthcare communication

Healthcare Role-Play Scenarios: 10 Situations Your Team Should Practice

10 healthcare role-play scenarios your team can actually run — angry patients, hard news, the copay ask, handoffs — each with a way to practice.

Jul 10, 2026 · 7 min read

A nurse and an older patient sharing a warm moment in a hospital roomHealthcare communication

Patient Experience vs. Patient Satisfaction: What's the Difference?

Patient experience vs. patient satisfaction: experience is what actually happened during care; satisfaction is whether it met expectations. Here's why it matters.

Jun 29, 2026 · 6 min read

A nurse leaning in and listening attentively to a hospital patientHealthcare communication

Active Listening in Nursing: Techniques & Real Examples

Active listening in nursing: what it really means at the bedside, the core techniques, real nursing examples, and how to actually build the skill.

Jun 28, 2026 · 7 min read

A nurse sitting at a hospital patient’s bedside, listening attentivelyHealthcare communication

How to Improve Your HCAHPS Scores: A Practical Guide

What HCAHPS measures, how it's scored, and how to improve your scores — with the communication domains that move overall rating front and center.

Jun 27, 2026 · 7 min read

A patient-access staff member helping a patient at a clinic front deskHealthcare communication

Healthcare Customer Service Training: A Practical Guide

Healthcare customer service training is empathy and de-escalation under pressure. What it should cover, how to deliver it so it sticks, and how to measure it.

Jun 22, 2026 · 5 min read

A nurse warmly listening to an older patient and their familyHealthcare communication

How to Improve Patient Experience in Healthcare (2026)

How to improve patient experience in healthcare: 8 proven strategies, how to measure HCAHPS, and the staff-conversation lever most guides skip.

Jun 22, 2026 · 7 min read

Two clinicians working through a disagreement at a hospital nursing stationHealthcare communication

Conflict Resolution in Healthcare: Styles, Steps & Scripts

Conflict on care teams hurts patients and retention. Learn the types, the five conflict-resolution styles, a six-step process, and scripts that work.

Jun 18, 2026 · 9 min read

Clinician using therapeutic communication while actively listening to a patientHealthcare communication

Therapeutic communication: techniques and examples

What therapeutic communication is, the core techniques with real examples, the non-therapeutic responses to avoid, and how to actually get good at it.

Jun 18, 2026 · 5 min read

A patient access representative calmly de-escalating a billing conversation with a patient at a hospital front deskHealthcare communication

Communication in healthcare: why it fails & how to train it

Why communication in healthcare fails, what failures cost — and how teams train the skill with practice and feedback, not lectures. A guide for care teams.

Jun 12, 2026 · 7 min read