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Wythenshawe Hospital have created the UK’s most widely taught and evaluated foundation level communication skills training: the ‘SAGE & THYME Foundation Level Workshop’.
The training was developed by clinical staff at Wythenshawe Hospital and a patient in 2006 and is now the UK’s most widely taught and evaluated foundation level communication skills training.
SAGE & THYME is designed to train all grades of staff how to listen and respond to patients, clients, or carers, who are distressed or concerned. Based on published research evidence about effective communication skills, it is a practical programme which improves clinical practice by helping medical staff to communicate more effectively with those they are treating.
Healthcare professionals and care workers learn how to start and end conversations with people who are distressed, providing a structure to psychologically supporting people while encouraging them to consider their own solutions. The training is designed for foundation level communication and is suitable for any member of staff within any specialty including medical secretaries, outpatient clerks, nurses, physiotherapists, doctors, social workers, students. The skills learned can also be helpful in dealing with colleagues and family members including children.
The training is now so widespread in the NHS that there is a section on SAGE & THYME in the 2015 edition of the renowned textbook ‘Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures’. Many people who take SAGE & THYME training find it so helpful that they would like to be able to train others in these techniques. Courses are available for Consultant Nurses, End of Life Care Facilitators, and Palliative Care Doctors in how to run a workshop.
For further information please contact, the SAGE & THYME team by emailing sageandthyme@mft.nhs.uk or calling 0161 291 4210
For further information please visit the training programme website.