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Online: Breaking bad news

How te deliver bad news about a serious illness, an accident or death

n life, everyone will experience death, illness, or an accident. Sometimes, you may need to tell someone about a serious illness, a loved one's accident, or even their death. This can be very difficult. It is important to know how to handle these situations and how to manage your emotions and the emotions of others.

This online course will teach you how to deliver sad news messages in a sensitive and compassionate way. You will learn how to choose the right words, how to be supportive, and how to help the person you are talking to cope with their grief.

Theme: Communication and interacton
Be the bearer of bad news in the best possible way
Reading time: 2 hours, exclusive of practice and assignments
Study time: 12 hours (estimated)
Total duration: 2-6 weeks

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For whom?
What and how

Have you ever had to tell someone that there's been a serious accident, that someone is gravely ill – or even worse – that someone has passed away? How did you handle it? This course is about delivering these types of difficult or sad news messages. News that you'd rather not have to deliver at all. Serious stuff. Delivering the worst possible news is always difficult and there's no such thing as "the perfect conversation." By following this course, you can at least make it easier for yourself. From the tools we provide, you'll choose what you need in your situation and your surroundings. That can vary from situation to situation

What will I learn?
During this course, you'll learn what steps to take when delivering shocking news. You'll discover what effect it has on you, prepare yourself for the sad news message conversation, and identify your role when delivering shocking news. You'll also learn how to deal with the emotions that come with delivering such news and how to move on further.

Every situation when delivering difficult news is different and requires a different approach. You'll learn how best to deal with each separate situation. Should you deliver the news in one long or short blow? To begin, you'll practice delivering a "normal" bad news conversation. For example, telling your spouse that several valuables were stolen from their car. That's definitely not the same as telling someone that a loved one has passed away or is seriously ill. However, it's really good practice and will help in working your way up to the more difficult exercises in this course..

What will I do?
Whenever you've to deliver a sad news message, it's almost always unexpected. That's why you form a contingency plan in this course. . It's a way to prepare yourself for certain situations and how to handle and react to them. Emotions play a big role when having to deliver news regarding a serious accident, illness, or a death announcement of a loved one. Are you able to recognize and deal with the emotions of others? How do you yourself handle the shock? And the shock of others? When delivering sad news messages, it's important to have your own emotions under control and to put them aside. Perhaps you're someone who doesn't show emotions. That's possible, but you undoubtedly have them and so do others! So how do you deal with them? You'll be working on that and more during this course. A course which will close with attention for aftercare.

In this learning journey, you'll discover:

how to deliver the worst news possible
which steps to take and how to prepare yourself
how to keep your own emotions under control

A sneak preview

Check out the sneak preview below. Explore a few chapters and you'll see that our journeys are engaging and activating: online learning can definitely be fun and exciting!

Interested?

You now have an impression of the learning journey. Would you like to continue learning? Do you want to give yourself a boost? Then let's get started.

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Meet the master

Our online courses are written by our "masters." Each one of them is an expert in their field, and they all have many years of experience. Among them you'll find trainers, psychologists, coaches, authors, etc.

Mieke van Bussel is the master behind this learning journey. Mieke is an experienced master in the area of communication and team coaching. She helps people to understand, and talk with, each other. Even when dealing with the most difficult of messages.

Mieke van Bussel

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