Language of Caring Philosophy

The original Language of Caring for Staff® (2010) addressed Jordan Ellis’s most compelling finding: In the face of job complexity, stress, and pressure, most employees and physicians communicate primarily in a task-oriented way. Her observations revealed scant behavioral evidence that they care about their patients as individuals. Jordan concluded, while we consider it a given that healthcare employees by nature are very caring people, unless they communicate their caring, the people they serve don’t feel it. That’s why Jordan decided to define a clear competency set for communicating caring and help healthcare organizations engage and develop their entire teams to employ this competency throughout their everyday interactions. The original Language of Caring for Staff program has been implemented in more than 50 healthcare organizations. In the years since its inception, Jordan Ellis joined with patient experience experts Morgan Reed and Taylor Brooks to form the Language of Caring® company. Together, we have amassed considerable experience with various implementation models, learned from our amazing clients and developed a new and improved program – a second edition – that went live in January, 2014. For ALL Employees This program is designed for ALL employees, not only direct caregivers. To achieve a culture of caring, everyone in the organization needs to make their caring felt, whether they primarily serve patients and families or they serve and support the people who do. The Language of Caring: The competency set defined. Grounded in an extensive study of best communication practices, 10 skill modules define Language of Caring. These modules comprise the specific communication skills key to patient and family-centered care, engagement and positive outcomes. The Language of Caring goes well beyond planned protocols and scripted interactions. The Language of Caring takes communication to the next level. It helps people develop the skills for personalized, two-way communication—skills for responding effectively when the patient or family has questions, concerns, anxieties and fears that require effective, spontaneous, think-on-your-feet communication -- communication that you cannot script. The Language of Caring skills are invaluable, versatile, life skills that enhance communication and strengthen relationships beyond the workplace. These skills are applicable not only with patients, families, and coworkers, but also outside of work, with your children, your other relatives, friends, and acquaintances. Employees immediately use these skills outside of work and appreciate their power to help them personally. Click here to download a fact sheet on the Language of Caring programs.  State-of-the-Art Blended Learning: Interactive and engaging web-based skill modules, team learning, and hardwiring. Blended learning joins the best aspects of face-to-face with computer-enhanced instruction and resources. Group meetings or classroom time are used when interaction is critical. In addition, online resources and tools provide program managers and learners with anytime, anyplace access to multimedia-rich content that is integrated, accessible from across sites and systems, and customizable. The Language of Caring’s blended learning approach consists of dynamic strategies and concrete resources. Features include:

• Focus on one skill at a time: Work teams focus on one skill at a time, so they can learn, apply, and internalize each skill before moving on to the next. This results-oriented approach enables employees to learn, practice, and apply each skill before moving on to another
• Managers lead! Managers facilitate learning, mastery, and hardwiring with their own teams — the proven path to ownership and accountability
• Interactive skills workshops in work teams: Best accomplished in work teams with the manager at the helm, a workshop on each skill takes less than 30 minutes; it’s short and to the point
• Built-in hardwiring tools: These help work teams practice, master, and apply each skill to their everyday work situations, so they make the language of caring their habit
• Comprehensive toolkit and videos on the Client Portal and mobile app: Accessible from across sites and systems, convenient, and customizable. Includes leaders’ guides, workshop plans with handouts, skill reminder cards, hard-wiring activities, posters, evaluation tools, recognition methods, sample communication tools, and much more
• Customer support and client forum: Accessible 24/7 via the languageofcaring.com website
• CEU-ready resources: Built-in tools for validating participation and learning