Clear, practical communication frameworks for the emergency department — breaking bad news, gaining consent, working across cultures, structured handover, and de-escalating conflict. The conversations that are hardest to get right, broken down into frameworks you can use on the next shift.
The SPIKES framework, pacing, silence, and what to say after a death in the ED.
De-escalation language, acknowledging emotion, when to set limits, staying safe.
Capacity, documentation, harm minimisation, and keeping the door open.
Material risks, the reasonable-patient standard, time pressure, and documentation.
Presenting options and uncertainty, eliciting values, agreeing a plan together.
Assessing capacity, the four elements, and when refusal must be respected.
Structured clinical handover that lands — to admitting teams, retrieval, and nursing.
Making the case to a reluctant consultant, escalating concern, and graded assertiveness.
Roles, expectations, scope, and the unwritten communication norms of local practice.
Working with interpreters, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, and humility.
Communication stations for fellowship and AMC exams — structure, timing, and pitfalls.
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