Updates on tEACH activities and ways for colleagues to share resources and expertise

Updates on tEACH activities and ways for colleagues to share resources and expertise tEACH, is the subcommittee of EACH that focuses on providing support, resources and sharing of expertise for communication teachers, whether about teaching, curriculum development or assessment. The aim of tEACH is to be a primary source of help for communication teachers everywhere. tEACH is composed of 35 working members representing a variety of health care disciplines and more than 21 different countries from around the world. Here we highlight exciting developments of ways that EACH members and PEC readers can share and search for resources and expertise related to teaching and assessment in communication in healthcare and recent tEACH activities. Expertise database: Ever wondered who has a similar interest to you? Or has expertise in a particular area? Or you are looking to do some collaborative work with someone? Well, look no further. tEACH in partnership with rEACH has now developed an online database “Finding Colleagues in EACH” where EACH members can search for colleagues by areas of interest and expertise. As a new initiative, at this point we want to encourage all EACH members to submit their own biographical information so others can connect with you. We also encourage you to search the site to identify people who may be helpful to you in your own work. The database site is located at www.each.eu/finding-colleagues-in-each/ The new video resource bank page is now live on the EACH website and we would be delighted to receive your contributions to further develop this new and exciting resource for teachers. We are looking to expand both our publicly available video resources: • Links to Professional websites - which contain video material suitable for teaching • Trigger videos e.g.clips from films, cartoons or existing youtube videos that illustrate a particular aspect of communication as well as our membership resources, video examples of real or simulated encounters. Submitting your videos is a very easy process located at http://www.each.eu/teaching/can-teach-offer/video-resources/ If you have any questions please contact [email protected] Teaching and Assessment tools: A primary focus of tEACH is to collect and develop resources to support teachers of communication in healthcare for all healthcare professions. We encourage you to explore our webpages http://www. each.eu/teaching/ and searchable database of teaching and assessment tools http://www.each.eu/teaching/resources/ for resources we have already collected and developed. We are always looking for new tools and innovative educational approaches to be submitted for the searchable database! We are currently especially looking for resource submissions and ideas in the following areas: The crosscultural project group is collecting information and tools related to teaching about cross/inter cultural communication in healthcare. Cross/inter cultural communication in healthcare is a complex though fascinating field and we are trying to collect members’ experiences in teaching about this topic. We are interested in receiving the following things: • Lists of publically available resources for teaching about cross/inter cultural communication in healthcare – for example, links to websites and other materials • Submissions of teaching tools related to cross/inter cultural communication that you have developed and are willing to share on the teaching tools database. If you have tools you are willing to share with other EACH members please contact Gigi [email protected] Written assessments of communication: Written tests represent an economic way for assessment in health professional schools with large numbers of students. Written tests are also useful for identifying and analyzing cognitive aspects of communication skills, like applying knowledge to clinical scenarios and patient problems. Several formats exist including: 1) Context rich stems such as patient vignettes, scenarios, video and/or audio followed by selected responses (x type, a type, pick n) and/or open-ended responses (extended answer, short answer) and 2) Context free stems often followed by selected responses. The tEACH assessment subgroup aims to help and inspire communication teachers in health care professions by providing materials for assessment. We are currently collecting resources on written assessment to share through the tEACH searchable database. If you are willing to share such material, please contact Noelle Junod Perron: [email protected]. French speaking EACH network: A conference for French speaking teachers and researchers in communication was held in Paris on the 17th june, 2017. 90 people from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and Brasil participated. The conference included 14 workshops and 3 plenaries addressing a variety of topics including the tEACH french network of teachers, workplace based communication learning, a descriptive model of the use of communication in different

settings, the CIM (convince, implement, maintain) model, motivational interviewing and the communication skills used in teaching and communication in the patient education. An excellent atmosphere and good organization allowed rich exchange and networking: A good start for the french network of teachers in communication! (Submitted by Johanna Sommer, Switzerland) Updates from tEACH Poland project: In addition to providing international courses on communication education http://www.each.eu/teaching/courses/, we have focused efforts on helping to establish and enhance communication in healthcare education on a national level in various countries. As a pilot project for this effort, in 2014 tEACH began working with health professional teachers in Poland to promote the importance of clinical communication and develop a cadre of future trainers and teachers of clinical communication in Poland. Following a first needs assessment meeting in 2014, the EACH Poland Network for Communication Teaching and Research with 50 communication teachers from across Poland and the Clinical Communication Centre (CCC) based in Bydgoszcz to oversee EACH activity in Poland was established. Since that time, the Network and CCC have been very productive in developing their own skills in communication teaching and how to train new communication teachers (through participation in a series of tEACH courses), implementing clinical communication curriculum in medical and physiotherapy schools throughout Poland, sponsoring a Poland wide conference on clinical communication, providing presentations at various healthcare professional conferences and conducting communication research. The CCC has held twice yearly meetings of the network in different cities in Poland, produce regular newsletters on Poland EACH activities and have launched a website to inform the wider community about actions aiming to promote clinical communication teaching and research in Poland. A full report EACH related activities in Poland can be viewed on the EACH website. (Submitted by Anna Ratajska and Magdalena Lewandowska, Poland) As I hope you can see from these updates, tEACH members have been very inspired and busy. We welcome your contributions to tEACH efforts and hope you find the resources we have made available useful. Feel free to contact us if you have any ideas, questions or concerns. [email protected] Warm wishes, Marcy Rosenbaum, Chair of tEACH Marcy Rosenbaum Department of Family Medicine University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine Iowa City, Iowa 52242 USA marcy-rosenbaum@ uiowa.edu