Language of Caring for Staff

Caring and communicating caring are two different things. No doubt, people in healthcare are caring people who intend to be caring in their work. Yet, these days, job demands, and pressures cause people to be so task-oriented, that they don’t make their caring felt. When employees don’t express their caring, when they don’t make their caring visible, it’s as good as absent from the experience of patients and families.

Language of Caring for Staff® is a dynamic, evidence-based strategy designed to help your healthcare teams show how much they care; improve your patient outcomes, CAHPS scores, and financial health; ensure patient safety; and support your organization’s mission.

• The solution creates alignment by developing a common language for caring communication; it clearly defines and standardizes best-practice communication skills without scripting.
• It mobilizes all employees as engaged contributors who together create a culture and community of caring that advances your inspiring mission … all without adding time to their already crammed days and nights.
• Language of Caring for Staff makes your other initiatives more effective. It builds the communication skills key to quality implementation of best-practice tactics, such as hourly rounding, greeting protocols, discharge phone calls, whiteboard conversations, and more.

With Language of Caring for Staff, your organization will:

• Earn patient, family and coworker trust, respect and confidence
• Personalize care and service for every patient and family, helping them feel listened to, cared for, and understood
• Encourage empathic communication, engagement and partnership, which are keys to patient and family-centered care
• Strengthen staff members’ connection and relationships with patients, families and coworkers, resulting in heightened engagement, satisfaction and professional gratification
• Achieve the improved patient outcomes known to result from empathic, healing communication
• Score high on CAHPS and reap the significant financial benefits
• Provide employees with a skill set that enables them to express their inherent caring and make their caring felt

The Language of Caring® skills are invaluable, versatile, life skills that enhance communication and strengthen relationships beyond the workplace. These skills are not only valuable with patients, families and coworkers, but also with family and friends.

Language of Caring Skill Modules

1. Introducing the Language of Caring
2. Heart-Head-Heart™
3. The Practice of Presence
4. Acknowledging Feelings
5. Showing Caring Nonverbally
6. Explaining Positive Intent
7. The Blameless Apology
8. The Gift of Appreciation
9. Say It Again with HEART
10. The Language of Caring: From Good to GREAT

State-of-the-Art Learning Approach: Language of Caring for Staff employs a blended learning approach that joins the best aspects of face-to-face with web-based instruction and resources, including interactive and engaging web-based skill modules, team learning, and hardwiring. Each skill module also includes a compelling instructional video filmed on location at Banner Health in Phoenix, with Banner Health physicians and staff as the cast.

“I see and hear stories about Language of Caring every day. Employees come to me and say, ‘I used Language of Caring with a difficult family today and it really worked’. That’s very rewarding.”

Amy Lambert
Senior VP
CHOP Care Network

“These are life skills. Kindness, compassion, and care can be lost in the ‘sea of busy.’ It’s good to have a program to help people focus and center on the ideals that make life bearable when things get tough. I make an effort every day to master these principles and pass them on to someone else. Keep your faith high, believe, dream, and watch the world move to the beat of your drum!”

Haze Harrison
Lead Office Assistant-Hospital Education
Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center

For more detailed information about the philosophy and methodology of Language of Caring, click here.