With appointments having to be rescheduled or cancelled over the past two years, call handling staff have frequently found themselves being victims of telephone abuse and aggression.
To help provide staff with the tools needed to help them in having these challenging conversations, a suite of online training sessions were carried out.
The 90-minute training sessions, which were held on MS Teams, saw 320 staff members being given the opportunity to receive help and advice on how to handle difficult telephone conversations.
Elaine McGuinness, senior organisational development advisor, said: “Staff are at times facing increasing criticism, concerns and complaints and sometimes being subjected to challenging and aggressive behaviour on a greater scale than has been experienced in the past.
“The public are becoming more frustrated as NHS services face increasing pressure, long delays and uncertainties about waiting times. When people are feeling vulnerable they may behave in ways which can be challenging and unpredictable and this is taking its toll on the health and well-being of our staff on the receiving end.
“Communicating by phone presents its own set of challenges, the training sessions aimed to support staff to manage challenging calls, maintain composure and confidence during difficult phone calls.”
The training sessions helped participants to recognise factors that can cause conflict to escalate and help them maintain composure and confidence during difficult phone calls.
The training also gave staff specific skills to structure and control challenging calls and help improve their self-confidence to manage difficult conversations.
Lynn Tweeddale, clerical officer, who attended the course, said: “I found the course extremely helpful and have already starting putting the tips that I learned into action.
“For example, during difficult calls I now know to keep an eye on the speed of my speech. When you talk quickly a patient may feel that they are being told off.
“If a patient talks over me, I make a point of listening to what they are saying rather than continuing with my sentence so illustrate that they are being well heard.”
Future training events on violence and aggression will be advertised via the Staff Briefing when they are finalised.
Full details of all health and wellbeing support available to health and social care staff is available at the following link: https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/your-health-matters/
Access to training and support for Local Authority employees is also available:
- North Lanarkshire Council employees should visit MyNL https://mynl.co.uk/
- South Lanarkshire Council employees should visit: https://www.southlanarkshire.gov.uk/info/200254/employee_information
