An Immersive Workshop for Healthcare Educators

January 6th – 8th, 2025

Healthcare requires a different kind of leader - one that strives to create a supportive environment for their patients, colleagues, and broader healthcare team; one that promotes a culture of collaboration and wellbeing; and one that is empathic and compassionate. The Lead with Compassion: Communication Skill-Building Workshop is an advanced 2.5 - day training in San Diego, CA, that equips experienced and aspiring healthcare professionals and theater artists with the tools to enhance their leadership performance in medical settings and beyond.

Through an interactive curriculum based in arts and humanities, this immersive session uncovers and develops your authentic style, and helps build your communication toolbox to become more adaptable when speaking with patients, students, funders, the media—and even your own family. You will participate in discussions, innovative exercises, reflections, and build community to increase wellness. Our overarching goal is to rewire the way healthcare providers think about communication in medicine, and address the importance of awareness, self-healing, and self-compassion.

This deep-dive experience can serve as a stand-alone opportunity or become your first step as a trainer to bolster your facilitation skills and learn ways of integrating these lessons into your curriculum. Our scaffolded program includes subsequent interactive sessions on Zoom, online modules with facilitation guides for integration into the classroom, and annual “booster” workshops to share best practices and help move the needle as a global community. Join the Center for Compassionate Communication to help us build stronger connections with patients, audiences, and ourselves.

REGISTER NOW for the Lead with Compassion: Communication Skill Building Workshop if you want to:

Discover empathic and compassionate principles that can enhance your leadership performance as a health caregiver
Ignite stronger, more meaningful relationships with patients, peers and more
Transform the way you think, see and act today's ever-changing healthcare landscape

Hotel and Travel

From the moment you arrive in San Diego, your Lead with Compassion adventure begins! Getting to our venue is a breeze thanks to a variety of hotels and transportation options in close proximity. See our recommended accommodations in San Diego, CA, at the jump.

VIEW HOTEL & TRAVEL INFO

“Listen to what some of our recent fellowship graduates say about our curriculum:”

Two Artist Fellows say: "I feel like I got more FROM the doctors and nurses than I gave TO them. It was life-changing!"

Hear how emergency room doctor Rachna Subramony applies lessons learned to her challenging work:

Lead with Compassion:

Location: Franklin Antonio Hall (Robert Conn Executive Meeting Room), UC San Diego

Workshop Schedule:

Day 1 - Foundational Tools: Making Connections:

We will focus today on awareness, connection, listening, flexibility, and designing a clear message about complicated information for a lay audience. We will review important research that validates the importance of compassionate communication in medicine for healthcare providers as well as patients and families. Immersive exercises will build strong team engagement, foster expression, make room for vulnerability and lay the foundation for speaking with clarity, compassion, and authenticity. Participants are encouraged to decide on a topic they struggle to explain to the lay public prior to the session.

Coffee and snacks are provided in the morning and afternoon. Lunch is provided.

Learning Objectives:

Recognize the value behind compassionate communication in medicine
Identify aspects of my identity that influence personal perspectives
Discover ways to lead communication encounters based on the needs of the listener
Describe tools and structures that lead to clarity and audience-specific messaging
Practice techniques to make a message clear and vivid
Develop skills in awareness, listening and flexibility
Demonstrate the impact of personal connection in speaking

Day 1 - Schedule:

8:30 a.m.– 9:00 a.m. Breakfast
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Making the Case for Compassionate Communication
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Connecting Through Improvisation
10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Clarifying a Complicated Message
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Structure Matters
2:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Break
2:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Speaking Plainly
3:30 p.m. – 3:40 p.m. Break
3:40 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Your Story
4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Reflective Writing and Wrap Up

Day 2 - Challenging Conversations in Medicine:

The focus today will be on challenging conversations in medicine and include roleplays, group sharing, and vulnerable conversations. The curriculum is scaffolded to provide applications to our foundational tools in observation, listening and connecting - and an opportunity to share and practice the art of medicine in a brave, supportive space. This will be a highly emotional day, with important breaks and reflective writing to process your learning and your hot buttons. There is nothing to prepare for this day’s session.

Coffee and snacks are provided in the morning and afternoon. Lunch is provided.

Learning Objectives - Morning: Recognizing Core Values:

Analyze and practice the value of perspective-taking in an emotional conversation 
Recognize the ladder of inference and relationship to conflict management 
Practice dealing with emotion through roleplay

Learning Objectives - Afternoon: Sharing Serious News: 

Recognize the difficulty of describing emotion
Practice ordering information with the headline
Practice emotional encounter through role-play 
Reflect on challenges that hinder communication in emotional situations
Describe successful techniques used in the past

Day 2 - Schedule:

8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Breakfast
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Finding Common Ground
9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Recognizing Core Values
10:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Dealing with Motion Roleplays
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Our Hot Buttons
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Group Discussion
1:30 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. Identifying Emotion in Ourselves
2:15 p.m. – 2:40 p.m. Bottom Line Up Front
2:40 p.m. – 2:55 p.m. Break
2:55 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Holding Space Roleplays
4:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Break
4:15 p.m. – 4:25 p.m. Reflective Writing
4:25 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Closing Discussion and Wrap Up

Day 3 - Narrative Humility:

This culminating session will expand the applications of our learning into important conversations and skill development around unconscious bias and microaggressions. Our work will include discussions, roleplays, and an opportunity to think as a team around vulnerabilities, misunderstandings, and intent vs. impact. There is a 20 - minute reading to prepare for this session that will be emailed prior to your arrival. We will conclude the morning with closing conversations and provide a working lunch to share follow-up training and discuss your experience.

Coffee and snacks are provided in the morning. A working lunch is provided.

Learning Objectives:

Expand the capacity of awareness for the self and others
Practice attunement through roleplay
Evaluate the role of the bystander
Describe concrete actions in the face of injustice
Develop skills in narrative humility

Day 3 - Schedule:

8:30 a.m.– 9:00 a.m. Breakfast
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. Our Identity
9:30 a.m.– 10:35 a.m. Narrative Humility and Dominic Roleplays
10:35 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. – 11:40 a.m. Roleplays Continued and Finding Our Voice as a Bystander
11:40 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. Reflective Writing
11:50 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Break
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. A Working Lunch - Next Steps