Communication is a core competency of public health, but communication training is often underemphasized in public health training. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken an emotional toll on impacted individuals and communities. In instances of heightened emotion, a provider’s ability to effectively communicate with empathy is critical for establishing rapport with a client or patient. When present in these interactions, empathy has been shown to reduce anxiety, and improve an individual’s likelihood of following treatment guidelines. As part of the team’s efforts to develop a competent public health workforce, we created an empathic communication workshop and responding guide (grounded in the actual experiences common to case investigations) to aid in their skill in responding to case emotion with empathy. 

To test the efficacy of this workshop intervention, staff, volunteers, and interns completed pre- and post-workshop measures of empathy and confidence. This project seeks to determine if this targeted empathy training was effective for bolstering the competencies of this team. 

 

Stay tuned for results, conference presentations, and publications on the topic. To learn more about our empathic communication training program, click here.