Effective Communication and Meeting the Needs of Patients with Disabilities

March 16, 2022

Program start day and time: Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 1pm EST

Format: Microsoft Teams virtual education

Description: This presentation will cover basic requirements for effective communication under federal law, tools, resources, best practices and the UPMC Disabilities Resource Center’s response to COVID-19 for patients with disabilities.

Note: For questions about this program or its set-up, please contact UPMC Senior Services at UPMCSeniorServices@UPMC.edu. Please note that we may be limited in responding to questions the day of the program.

Target Audience

Nurses

Social workers

Learning Objectives

By the completion of this session, participants should be able to: 

  • Identify common issues patients with disabilities can encounter during their healthcare experience.
  • Describe the significance of providing effective communication, the use of ASL interpreters, Video Remote Interpretation (VRI) and know what to do when a patient denies the UPMC provided interpreter.
  • Identify tools and resources to support patients with disabilities for effective communication, physical accommodations, and how to access them within the UPMC System.
Course summary
Available credit: 
  • 1.00 ANCC
    UPMC Provider Unit is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation
  • 1.00 ASWB
  • 1.00 Attendance
Course opens: 
02/01/2022
Course expires: 
05/13/2022
Event starts: 
03/16/2022 - 1:00pm EDT
Event ends: 
03/16/2022 - 2:00pm EDT
Add to calendar: 

This presentation will cover basic requirements for effective communication under federal law, tools, resources, best practices and the UPMC Disabilities Resource Center’s response to COVID-19 for patients with disabilities.

By the completion of this session, participants should be able to: 

  • Identify common issues patients with disabilities can encounter during their healthcare experience.
  • Describe the significance of providing effective communication, the use of ASL interpreters, Video Remote Interpretation (VRI) and know what to do when a patient denies the UPMC provided interpreter.
  • Identify tools and resources to support patients with disabilities for effective communication, physical accommodations, and how to access them within the UPMC System.
Teams meeting
Pittsburgh, PA
United States

This program will occur as a Microsoft Teams meeting. Individuals can join through the Teams app, a web browser (suggested browsers are Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome; no software download is required), or through their phone.

Matthew Berwick, MA

Program Manager, Disability Accommodations for Clinical Services

Disabilities Resource Center

Conflict of Interest Disclosure: No members of the planning committee, speakers, presenters, authors, content reviewers and/or anyone else in a position to control the content of this education activity have relevant financial relationships with any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services, used on, or consumed by, patients to disclose.

In support of improving patient care, the University of Pittsburgh is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

As a Jointly Accredited Organization, University of Pittsburgh is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. University of Pittsburgh maintains responsibility for this course. Social workers completing this course receive 1.0 continuing education credits.

Nursing (CNE)
The maximum number of hours awarded for this Continuing Nursing Education activity is 1.0 contact hours.

Social Work (ASWB)

This program is offered for 1.0 hours of social work continuing education.

Other Health Care Professionals

Other health care professionals will receive a certificate of attendance confirming the number of contact hours commensurate with the extent of participation in this activity.

Available Credit

  • 1.00 ANCC
    UPMC Provider Unit is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation
  • 1.00 ASWB
  • 1.00 Attendance
Please login or register to take this course.

Required Hardware/software

Microsoft Teams