Behaviour Change Skills

Course Description

The ability to communicate with your patients is a core medical skill that requires essential behavior change training and skills. Communication and interpersonal skills involve the ability to obtain information to diagnose accurately, counsel appropriately, give therapeutic instructions, and build a compassionate relationship with the patient. Effective communication and corrected behavior can markedly improve health‐related self‐efficacy, patient satisfaction, treatment adherence, and outcomes.

While these behavior skills are emphasized in advanced healthcare systems, they do not get the same emphasis in India due to inadequate infrastructure and overburdened personnel.

The Behaviour Change Skills course encompasses three sub-courses consisting of

1. The “Person-Centred Communication” Course explores the behavioral skills underlying a successful practitioner-patient relationship consisting of sharing perspectives (concerns, ideas, expectations, needs, feelings, and functioning) and changing patient perceptions regarding the nature of the disease and providing psycho-social support. The spirit of this approach is to have a greater insight of underlying behavior changes and emphasizes the use of clear, uncomplicated, and specific ability to communicate.
2. The “Enhancing Motivation” Course explores the complex topic of motivation and describes effective strategies to promote behavior change in individuals who are ambivalent towards making changes. These strategies look into targeting the patient’s self-efficacy and value beliefs through motivational interviewing principles. We also recognize that environmental interventions have a crucial role to play in promoting health behavior change.
3. Finally, “Applying CBT in Practice”, is adapted from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and builds upon the knowledge and skill covered in “Person-Centred Communication” and “Enhancing Motivation” courses. The course aims to help individuals become more self-aware of their own unhealthy behavior patterns and initiate an agenda to develop long-term behavioral and cognitive techniques to disrupt these unhealthy behavioral patterns.

The three Behaviour Change Skills courses together have been developed to provide a tutor-based modular progressive learning program, allows for easy comprehension and demonstration of the communication methods required to improve your behavior change skills. Additionally, the reflections, bonus downloads, expert discussions, real-time presentation, sample telephonic interviews, and graded assignments, allow you to apply the consumed content in practice.

This course is certified by The College of Contemporary Health (CCH), UK, and Medvarsity.

We at Medvarsity strive to equip every physician with the ability to fast-track their career and enable them to better serve the communities in which they practice. Join us and let us impact healthcare through education.

Eligibility: Doctors (all streams), Nurses, Interns, Educators, and other healthcare professionals interested in developing and delivering Behaviour Change Skills into their practice.

Course Validity: 3 months. There will be an extra charge for the extension of the course validity.