Skills to Enhance the Patient-Provider Relationship in Complex Care Settings

For frontline health care providers, navigating complex patient interactions requires more than just clinical expertise—it demands strong communication, boundary-setting, and person-centered care skills, according to Gladys Antelo-Allen, ​​associate director of education and training at Camden Coalition. In this interview, she explores foundational skills in complex care that can enhance provider education and facilitate trusting patient-provider relationships.

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Transcript

Can you share more about the topics covered in Camden Coalition's skills lab?

Person-centered care is another topic we dive into through the microlesson “Implementing Person-Centered Language.” Learners are guided in using empowering, respectful language that aligns with the principles of person-centered care, right? We know that language is ever evolving, and the words that we use matter and they have weight, so really ensuring that we're using respectful language and that we're mindful of how we really infuse that strengths-based focus when we're engaging with folks.

Boundaries is another topic that we really dive into through the microlesson “Identifying and Establishing Boundaries.” This lesson really provides tools for setting clear, healthy boundaries to really protect both the provider and the patient relationship.

Each microlesson is designed to be compact; it's designed to be practical. It's supposed to be really easy to access, allowing all the learners to engage with skills that they need most in their own time in any order. This type of flexibility not only supports and ensures that the learners can revisit specific lessons when they need it or when maybe I need a quick refresher. Maybe I'm getting ready to go into a patient interaction, and I can't remember, or I really need a quick refresher on setting boundaries. And how do I establish healthy boundaries? I want to dive into that topic real quick, right? Maybe I only have 10 minutes before my next visit, which is often what it looks like for us on the front lines, and all I have is those 10 minutes to really dive into this topic. Maybe I would like to see a role play of what type of conversation that I can have around setting boundaries. So this is, again, this type of structure helps our frontline staff providers strengthen their practice in ways that are directly applicable to the complex realities that they face every day.