Effective communication and empathy are just as critical in healthcare as clinical knowledge—and that’s where healthcare interpersonal skills training comes in. Designed to help students develop the soft skills needed for patient-centered care, our Healthcare Interpersonal Skills Program offers a hands-on, scenario-based approach to teaching empathy, active listening, and respectful communication. With ready-to-use lessons and engaging activities, this program equips future healthcare professionals to build trust, navigate difficult conversations, and deliver compassionate care.
Skills Students Will Gain
The Healthcare Interpersonal Skills Program is designed to help students develop the essential soft skills that healthcare professionals rely on every day. Through scenario-based learning, interactive workbooks, and targeted lessons, students gain practical experience in navigating real-world challenges with:
- Effective communication
- Empathy and compassion
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Professionalism and accountability
Ready-to-Use Lessons for Building Soft Skills
This program offers a 10-lesson printed curriculum designed to support healthcare interpersonal skills training through topics like teamwork, problem solving, and critical thinking. The entire curriculum takes about 10 hours to teach, but educators can easily select specific lessons or activities to incorporate into their current lesson plan. It includes presentation slides, student activities, and assessment tools. It also aligns to the National Health Science Education Foundation Standards.
See a sample of the curriculum here.
Online Training for Compassionate Care
In addition to the printed curriculum that covers a variety of healthcare soft skills, we’ve also included an eight-lesson online curriculum completely focused on empathy for healthcare interpersonal skills training. Lesson topics include developing clinical empathy, patient communication, empathy in emergency scenarios, and more. This curriculum is designed for high school students, post-secondary healthcare courses, and certified nursing assistant (CNA) training courses.
Get a free trial of the online empathy lessons here. No credit card required!
Practical Exercises for Patient and Team Communication
This program comes with 20 healthcare interpersonal skills training workbooks that correspond to the spiral-bound curriculum. Each of the 10 skills the curriculum covers has four workbook activities, two focused on patients and two focused on colleagues. Students will write detailed reports for an ambulance company’s policies and procedures manual, create informational flyers for clinic waiting rooms, and make easy-to-understand medication instructions for patients.
See a sample of the workbook here.
Scenario-Based Learning for Soft Skills Development
Engage students in scenario-based learning for healthcare interpersonal skills training with the 20 scenarios in this kit. Use them as icebreaker activities or journaling prompts to get students thinking about real-world situations they may face. Each scenario lays out points of view to consider and key questions. These realistic scenarios help students practice responding to challenges with empathy and professionalism.
Check out a sample of the scenario cards here.
Additional Resources
Looking for more health science teaching resources?
- Watch our free webinar on using wearable simulator to teach empathy
- Explore all our health science soft skills teaching tools here
- Discover free health science career exploration lessons
