EC4H Iceland

In 2014 the Icelandic Cancer Society teamed up with EC4H by sending two Icelandic health care professionals Sigrun L. Magnusdottir (a nurse) and Jon Eyjolf Jónsson (a medical consultant) to Edinburgh to participate in EC4H ‘Train the Trainers’ course.

Árið 2014 hóf Krabbameinsfélag Íslands (KÍ) samstarf við samtökin Effective Communication for Health (EC4H) í Skotlandi. Þá fóru Sigrún Lillie Magnúsdóttir hjúkrunarfræðingur og Jón Eyjólfur Jónsson læknir á leiðbeinendanámskeið í Edinborg með það að markmiði að bjóða uppá tjáskiptanámskeið á Íslandi, sérstaklega í kringum það að færa slæmar fréttir. Þeim til stuðnings var Erna Haraldsdóttir doktor í líknarhjúkrun, sem sjálf er leiðbeinandi á námskeiðum hjá EC4H í Skotlandi og starfar fyrir Queen Margaret University og St Columba’s Hospice í Edinborg. Síðustu ár hafa verið haldin yfir 30 námskeið með á fjórða hundrað þátttakendum, hjúkrunarfræðingum og læknum. Gerður var samningur við Landspítala árið 2018 um samstarf við að leggja til leiðbeinendur á námskeiðin. Þessi námskeið fluttust síðan alfarið frá KÍ til Landspítala árið 2020 með samningi á milli Landspítala og EC4H.

In 2014 the Icelandic Cancer Society teamed up with EC4H by sending two Icelandic health care professionals Sigrun Lillie Magnusdottir (a nurse) and Jon Eyjolfur Jonsson (a medical consultant) to Edinburgh to participate in EC4H´s‘ Train the Trainers’ course. The aim was to deliver EC4H communication courses in Iceland specifically on the subject of “breaking bad news to patients”. This was all facilitated by Dr Erna Haraldsdottir (BSc, MSc, PhD), a senior lecturer in the Nursing Division of Queen Margaret University who also is an EC4HC trainer. In terms of keeping the momentum and taking EC4H further forward 4 more facilitators went to Edinburg; in 2015 (Arna Dogg Einarsdottir, MD and Kristin Lara Olafsdottir, CNS) and 2016 (Gudridur K Thordardottir, CNS and Thorhildur Kristinsdottir, MD) to complete the EC4H Train the Trainer course. Now over 30 workshops have been offered in Iceland to over 300 nurses and physicians. In 2020 Landspitali, The National University Hospital of Iceland, took over running the workshops from the Icelandic Cancer Society. The feedback from our participants have been extremely positive as evident in the following quotes taken from written feedback after the course.

“I should do this every year”

“I found experiencing role play very effective way to learn”.

“Why have I not had this guidance [on effective communication] before?"

”Excellent course”

“Everything very useful but specifically useful for me were thoughts around concepts of “hope and worry”