Defining Personalized Care: Communicate Effectively segment ready to complete

About 60% of Vanderbilt University Medical Center employees have already completed the second segment of Defining Personalized Care — Elevating Our Culture of Service, a two-year personalized care journey through exceptional service.

“It’s wonderful to see that so many of us have already completed the new segment of our Defining Personalized Care initiative so soon after it was announced,” said Wright Pinson, MBA, MD, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Health System Officer for VUMC. “That lets us know that we’re all fully committed to our efforts to provide the best possible service to our colleagues and care to our patients and their families every day.”

85% of the VUMC community have completed the first installment of the initiative, Defining Personalized Care: Be Welcoming. Each segment is designed to be completed in the order they are assigned to employees in the Learning Exchange. Once the Be Welcoming segment (available here) is completed, employees are then able to complete the second segment, Communicate Effectively (available here).

“The topics we cover in these segments come from feedback from our patient surveys and VUMC staff, so we can learn and share best practices to create consistent positive experiences throughout our health system,” said Cory Colton, VUMC Executive Director of Learning and Development.

In Defining Personalized Care: Communicate Effectively (available here), everyone who completes this topic will have a better understanding of the role body language, tone and word choice play in communications, so we are prepared to improve upon our interactions with each other, our patients and their family members. The segment takes about 15 minutes to complete and includes:

• One Family’s Story, an actual patient family member story from a VUMC employee that emphasizes the positive role effective communication between VUMC staff and clinicians provided in one family’s journey.
• Communicate Effectively, includes audio examples and drop-and-drag exercises to demonstrate how everyone can improve their communications with coworkers, patients, and families.
• A downloadable guide for leaders and team members to help reinforce the key concepts is the last step to successfully mark you as complete for this segment.

A new segment will roll out about each quarter and each segment needs to be completed in the order they are assigned through the Learning Exchange.

More information about Defining Personalized Care — Elevating Our Culture of Service is available at the Elevate website.